Re: [PATCH 3/4] rust: id_pool: add contiguous area allocation

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Jul 07, 2026 at 12:31:08PM -0400, Yury Norov wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 07, 2026 at 04:13:30PM +0200, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 07, 2026 at 10:25:27PM +0900, Eliot Courtney wrote:
> > > On Fri Jul 3, 2026 at 7:31 PM JST, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Jul 03, 2026 at 07:16:06PM +0900, Eliot Courtney wrote:
> > > >> Add support for contiguous area allocation. Add a new type,
> > > >> `UnusedArea`, following the same pattern as `UnusedId`.
> > > >> 
> > > >> Signed-off-by: Eliot Courtney <ecourtney@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > >
> > > > Why isn't the built-in idr library being used here instead of rolling
> > > > your own data structure?
> > > >
> > > > thanks,
> > > >
> > > > greg k-h
> > > 
> > > For nova-core in this series, we need allocation of a contiguous
> > > sequence of IDs with a specific length and sometimes a specific
> > > alignment. IIUC, IDA/xarray do not support that (I checked
> > > ida_alloc_range and it only allocates a single ID in a range, not a
> > > contiguous sequence).
> > > 
> > > For IdPool before this series, I think it could have used IDA/xarray.
> > > See [1] where Alice has posted some more context.
> > > 
> > > w.r.t. the structure choice, the IDs we need to allocate are channel
> > > IDs, and the total range is limited to 2048 of them, so IMO bitmaps are
> > > a better fit than e.g. maple tree.
> > 
> > But again, you are having to "roll your own" logic here, please reuse
> > the data structures we already have in the kernel for this type of
> > thing.  If a maple tree works, please use it.
> 
> I asked exactly the same question when Alice and Burak added wrappers
> for bitmaps to implement their ID pool. This is the answer:
> 
>   An alternative route of vendoring an existing Rust bitmap package was
>   considered but suboptimal overall. Reusing the C implementation is
>   preferable for a basic data structure like bitmaps. It enables Rust
>   code to be a lot more similar and predictable with respect to C code
>   that uses the same data structures and enables the use of code that
>   has been tried-and-tested in the kernel, with the same performance
>   characteristics whenever possible.
> 
> And now it's in a commit message: 11eca92a2caeb
> 
> They measured the affect of their wrapper on performance, and it appears
> to be ~5%. See lib/find_bit_benchmark_rust.rs.

You are comparing the C vs. Rust data structures here, which is not what
I am proposing.

Also, is this code being used on a "hot path" like the binder stuff is?

> I didn't see any side-to-side comparison between any native Rust API vs
> imported C bitmaps. I'm sure, I asked for that, and I still believe
> it's the important piece of data to avoid this back-and-forth type of
> discussions. So, Alice, Burak or anybody...

Again, I'm not talking about Rust API vs. imported C bitmaps, I'm asking
to use the C structures like maple-tree and idr instead of open-coding
logic around the bitmap code.

> > > > Why isn't the built-in idr library being used here instead of rolling
> > > > your own data structure?
> 
> Now having more context, the ID pool's primary goal is to allocate
> individual IDs, which naturally lays on find_bit() API in C. The
> native Rust alternative is considered and found 'suboptimal overall'.

Allocating IDs is a probe() thing, which can be as slow as it wants,
right?  Or is this some other hot-path where performance matters?  The
patch was not very specific as to the tradeoffs needed.

thanks,

greg k-h