Re: [git pull for -mm] CPU isolation extensions (updated2)

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Mon, 2008-02-11 at 20:10 -0800, Max Krasnyansky wrote:
> Andrew, looks like Linus decided not to pull this stuff.
> Can we please put it into -mm then.
> 
> My tree is here
> 	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/maxk/cpuisol-2.6.git
> Please use 'master' branch (or 'for-linus' they are identical).

I'm wondering why you insist on offering a git tree that bypasses the
regular maintainers. Why not post the patches and walk the normal route?

To me this feels rather aggressive, which makes me feel less inclined to
look at it.

> ----
>  
> Diffstat:
>  Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-system-cpu |   41 +++++++
>  Documentation/cpu-isolation.txt                    |  113 +++++++++++++++++++++
>  arch/x86/Kconfig                                   |    1 
>  arch/x86/kernel/genapic_flat_64.c                  |    4 
>  drivers/base/cpu.c                                 |   48 ++++++++
>  include/linux/cpumask.h                            |    3 
>  kernel/Kconfig.cpuisol                             |   42 +++++++
>  kernel/Makefile                                    |    4 
>  kernel/cpu.c                                       |   54 ++++++++++
>  kernel/sched.c                                     |   36 ------
>  kernel/stop_machine.c                              |    8 +
>  kernel/workqueue.c                                 |   30 ++++-
>  12 files changed, 337 insertions(+), 47 deletions(-)
> 
> This addresses all Andrew's comments for the last submission. Details here:
>    http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=120236394012766&w=2
> 
> There are no code changes since last time, besides minor fix for moving on-stack array 
> to __initdata as suggested by Andrew. Other stuff is just documentation updates. 
> 
> List of commits
>    cpuisol: Make cpu isolation configrable and export isolated map
>    cpuisol: Do not route IRQs to the CPUs isolated at boot
>    cpuisol: Do not schedule workqueues on the isolated CPUs
>    cpuisol: Move on-stack array used for boot cmd parsing into __initdata
>    cpuisol: Documentation updates
>    cpuisol: Minor updates to the Kconfig options
>    cpuisol: Do not halt isolated CPUs with Stop Machine
> 
> I suggested by Ingo I'm CC'ing everyone who is even remotely connected/affected ;-)

You forgot Oleg, he does a lot of the workqueue work.

I'm worried by your approach to never start any workqueue on these cpus.
Like you said, it breaks Oprofile and others who depend on cpu local
workqueues being present.

Under normal circumstances these workqueues will not do any work,
someone needs to provide work for them. That is, workqueues are passive.

So I think your approach is the wrong way about. Instead of taking the
workqueue away, take away those that generate the work.

> Ingo, Peter - Scheduler.
>    There are _no_ changes in this area besides moving cpu_*_map maps from kerne/sched.c 
>    to kernel/cpu.c.

Ingo (and Thomas) do the genirq bits

The IRQ isolation in concept isn't wrong. But it seems to me that
arch/x86/kernel/genapic_flat_64.c isn't the best place to do this.
It just considers one architecture, if you do this, please make it work
across all.

> Paul - Cpuset
>    Again there are _no_ changes in this area.
>    For reasons why cpuset is not the right mechanism for cpu isolation see this thread
>       http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=120180692331461&w=2
> 
> Rusty - Stop machine.
>    After doing a bunch of testing last three days I actually downgraded stop machine 
>    changes from [highly experimental] to simply [experimental]. Pleas see this thread 
>    for more info: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=120243837206248&w=2
>    Short story is that I ran several insmod/rmmod workloads on live multi-core boxes 
>    with stop machine _completely_ disabled and did no see any issues. Rusty did not get
>    a chance to reply yet, I hopping that we'll be able to make "stop machine" completely
>    optional for some configurations.

I too am thinking this is very wrong, stop machine is used by a lot of
things, including those that modify the kernel code. You really need to
replace all stop machine users with a more robust solution before you
can do this.

> Gerg - ABI documentation.
>    Nothing interesting here. I simply added 
> 	Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-system-cpu
>    and documented some of the attributes exposed in there.
>    Suggested by Andrew.

Not having seen the latest patches; I'm still not fond of the isolation
interface.


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