Re: [PATCH v4 7/9] sched/fair: Remove superfluous rcu_read_lock() in the wakeup path

From: Dietmar Eggemann

Date: Sun Mar 15 2026 - 19:36:44 EST


On 12.03.26 05:44, K Prateek Nayak wrote:
> select_task_rq_fair() is always called with p->pi_lock held and IRQs
> disabled which makes it equivalent of an RCU read-side.
>
> Since commit 71fedc41c23b ("sched/fair: Switch to
> rcu_dereference_all()") switched to using rcu_dereference_all() in the
> wakeup path, drop the explicit rcu_read_{lock,unlock}() in the fair
> task's wakeup path.
>
> Future plans to reuse select_task_rq_fair() /
> find_energy_efficient_cpu() in the fair class' balance callback will do
> so with IRQs disabled and will comply with the requirements of
> rcu_dereference_all() which makes this safe keeping in mind future
> development plans too.
>
> Signed-off-by: K Prateek Nayak <kprateek.nayak@xxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changelog v3..v4:
>
> o No changes.
> ---
> kernel/sched/fair.c | 33 ++++++++++++---------------------
> 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> index d57c02e82f3a..28853c0abb83 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> @@ -8570,10 +8570,9 @@ static int find_energy_efficient_cpu(struct task_struct *p, int prev_cpu)
> struct perf_domain *pd;
> struct energy_env eenv;
>
> - rcu_read_lock();
> pd = rcu_dereference_all(rd->pd);
Got an RCU related warning when running EAS:

[ 3.795872] EM: rcu read lock needed
[ 3.795903] WARNING: ./include/linux/energy_model.h:251 at compute_energy+0x3
a4/0x3bc, CPU#1: swapper/1/0
[ 3.813755] Modules linked in:
[ 3.816844] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 7.0.0-rc2-00295-
g93189edc73c8-dirty #30 PREEMPT
[ 3.826807] Hardware name: ARM Juno development board (r0) (DT)
[ 3.832752] pstate: 600000c5 (nZCv daIF -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[ 3.839750] pc : compute_energy+0x3a4/0x3bc
[ 3.843970] lr : compute_energy+0x3a4/0x3bc
[ 3.848185] sp : ffff8000838f39e0
[ 3.851518] x29: ffff8000838f3a00 x28: ffff0008008fe560 x27: 00000000000000f9
[ 3.858717] x26: ffff800082702250 x25: ffff000803211e00 x24: ffff8000838f3af8
[ 3.865913] x23: ffff0008009a3580 x22: 00000000000000f9 x21: 00000000ffffffff
[ 3.873108] x20: ffff0008030377c0 x19: 00000000000000b7 x18: 0000000000000028
[ 3.880303] x17: ffff8008fc91f000 x16: ffff8000838f0000 x15: 0000000000000007
[ 3.887497] x14: fffffffffffc73af x13: 0a64656465656e20 x12: 0000000000008000
[ 3.894690] x11: ffff80008272ca18 x10: ffff8000825f7000 x9 : 0000000000000050
[ 3.901884] x8 : 0000000000000008 x7 : ffff800080190100 x6 : 0000000000000001
[ 3.909076] x5 : 0000000000000161 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000001
[ 3.916268] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff0008002e1ac0
[ 3.923461] Call trace:
[ 3.925924] compute_energy+0x3a4/0x3bc (P)
[ 3.930147] select_task_rq_fair+0x590/0x1990
[ 3.934541] try_to_wake_up+0x1f8/0xac4
[ 3.938420] wake_up_process+0x18/0x24
[ 3.942208] process_timeout+0x14/0x20
[ 3.945995] call_timer_fn+0xb8/0x470

We need to adapt em_cpu_energy() in include/linux/energy_model.h as
well.

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