Re: [v7 0/8] Reduce cross CPU IPI interference

[Gilad Ben-Yossef]

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sun, 2012-02-05 at 13:46 +0200, Gilad Ben-Yossef wrote:
>> > /*
>> >  * Cause all memory mappings to be populated in the page table.
>> >  * Specifying this when entering dataplane mode ensures that no future
>> >  * page fault events will occur to cause interrupts into the Linux
>> >  * kernel, as long as no new mappings are installed by mmap(), etc.
>> >  * Note that since the hardware TLB is of finite size, there will
>> >  * still be the potential for TLB misses that the hypervisor handles,
>> >  * either via its software TLB cache (fast path) or by walking the
>> >  * kernel page tables (slow path), so touching large amounts of memory
>> >  * will still incur hypervisor interrupt overhead.
>> >  */
>> > #define DP_POPULATE     0x8
>>
>> hmm... I've probably missed something, but doesn't this replicate
>> mlockall (MCL_CURRENT|MCL_FUTURE) ?
>
> Never use mlockall() its a sign you're doing it wrong, also his comment
> seems to imply MCL_FUTURE isn't required.
>


My current understanding is that if I have a real time task and wish it
have a deterministic performance time, you should call mlockall() to lock
the program data and text into physical memory so that  a  less often taken
branch or access to a new data region will not result in a page fault.

You still have to worry about TLB misses on non hardware page table
walk architecture, but at least everything is in the  page tables

If there is a better way to do this? I'm always happy to learn new
ways to do things. :-)


Thanks,
Gilad

-- 
Gilad Ben-Yossef
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gilad@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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situation where the homework eats your dog?"
 -- Jean-Baptiste Queru
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