Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] qrwlock: A queue read/write lock implementation

From: walken
Date: Wed Oct 23 2013 - 08:00:20 EST

On Wed, Oct 02, 2013 at 10:09:04AM -0400, Waiman Long wrote:
> This patch introduces a new read/write lock implementation that put
> waiting readers and writers into a queue instead of actively contending
> the lock like the current read/write lock implementation. This will
> improve performance in highly contended situation by reducing the
> cache line bouncing effect.
>
> The queue read/write lock (qrwlock) is mostly fair with respect to
> the writers, even though there is still a slight chance of write
> lock stealing.
>
> Externally, there are two different types of readers - unfair (the
> default) and fair. A unfair reader will try to steal read lock even
> if a writer is waiting, whereas a fair reader will be waiting in
> the queue under this circumstance. These variants are chosen at
> initialization time by using different initializers. The new *_fair()
> initializers are added for selecting the use of fair reader.
>
> Internally, there is a third type of readers which steal lock more
> aggressively than the unfair reader. They simply increments the reader
> count and wait until the writer releases the lock. The transition to
> aggressive reader happens in the read lock slowpath when
> 1. In an interrupt context.
> 2. when a classic reader comes to the head of the wait queue.
> 3. When a fair reader comes to the head of the wait queue and sees
> the release of a write lock.
>
> The fair queue rwlock is more deterministic in the sense that late
> comers jumping ahead and stealing the lock is unlikely even though
> there is still a very small chance for lock stealing to happen if
> the readers or writers come at the right moment. Other than that,
> lock granting is done in a FIFO manner. As a result, it is possible
> to determine a maximum time period after which the waiting is over
> and the lock can be acquired.
>
> The queue read lock is safe to use in an interrupt context (softirq
> or hardirq) as it will switch to become an aggressive reader in such
> environment allowing recursive read lock. However, the fair readers
> will not support recursive read lock in a non-interrupt environment
> when a writer is waiting.
>
> The only downside of queue rwlock is the size increase in the lock
> structure by 4 bytes for 32-bit systems and by 12 bytes for 64-bit
> systems.
>
> This patch will replace the architecture specific implementation
> of rwlock by this generic version of queue rwlock when the
> ARCH_QUEUE_RWLOCK configuration parameter is set.
>
> In term of single-thread performance (no contention), a 256K
> lock/unlock loop was run on a 2.4GHz and 2.93Ghz Westmere x86-64
> CPUs. The following table shows the average time (in ns) for a single
> lock/unlock sequence (including the looping and timing overhead):
>
> Lock Type 2.4GHz 2.93GHz
> --------- ------ -------
> Ticket spinlock 14.9 12.3
> Read lock 17.0 13.5
> Write lock 17.0 13.5
> Queue read lock 16.0 13.5
> Queue fair read lock 16.0 13.5
> Queue write lock 9.2 7.8
> Queue fair write lock 17.5 14.5
>
> The queue read lock is slightly slower than the spinlock, but is
> slightly faster than the read lock. The queue write lock, however,
> is the fastest of all. It is almost twice as fast as the write lock
> and about 1.5X of the spinlock. The queue fair write lock, on the
> other hand, is slightly slower than the write lock.
>
> With lock contention, the speed of each individual lock/unlock function
> is less important than the amount of contention-induced delays.
>
> To investigate the performance characteristics of the queue rwlock
> compared with the regular rwlock, Ingo's anon_vmas patch that convert
> rwsem to rwlock was applied to a 3.12-rc2 kernel. This kernel was
> then tested under the following 4 conditions:
>
> 1) Plain 3.12-rc2
> 2) Ingo's patch
> 3) Ingo's patch + unfair qrwlock (default)
> 4) Ingo's patch + fair qrwlock
>
> The jobs per minutes (JPM) results of the AIM7's high_systime workload
> at 1500 users on a 8-socket 80-core DL980 (HT off) were:
>
> Kernel JPM %Change from (1)
> ------ --- ----------------
> 1 148265 -
> 2 238715 +61%
> 3 242048 +63%
> 4 234881 +58%
>
> The use of unfair qrwlock provides a small boost of 2%, while using
> fair qrwlock leads to 3% decrease of performance. However, looking
> at the perf profiles, we can clearly see that other bottlenecks were
> constraining the performance improvement.
>
> Perf profile of kernel (2):
>
> 18.20% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __write_lock_failed
> 9.36% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 2.91% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] mspin_lock
> 2.73% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] anon_vma_interval_tree_insert
> 2.23% ls [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 1.29% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __read_lock_failed
> 1.21% true [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 1.14% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] zap_pte_range
> 1.13% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock
> 1.04% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] mutex_spin_on_owner
>
> Perf profile of kernel (3):
>
> 10.57% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 7.98% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] queue_write_lock_slowpath
> 5.83% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] mspin_lock
> 2.86% ls [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 2.71% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] anon_vma_interval_tree_insert
> 1.52% true [kernel.kallsyms] [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> 1.51% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] queue_read_lock_slowpath
> 1.35% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] mutex_spin_on_owner
> 1.12% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] zap_pte_range
> 1.06% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] perf_event_aux_ctx
> 1.01% reaim [kernel.kallsyms] [k] perf_event_aux
>
> Tim Chen also tested the qrwlock with Ingo's patch on a 4-socket
> machine. It was found the performance improvement of 11% was the
> same with regular rwlock or queue rwlock.
>
> Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@xxxxxx>

I haven't followed all the locking threads lately; did this get into any
tree yet and is it still being considered ?

> + * Writer state values & mask
> + */
> +#define QW_WAITING 1 /* A writer is waiting */
> +#define QW_LOCKED 0xff /* A writer holds the lock */
> +#define QW_MASK_FAIR ((u8)~QW_WAITING) /* Mask for fair reader */
> +#define QW_MASK_UNFAIR ((u8)~0) /* Mask for unfair reader */

I'm confused - I expect fair readers want to queue behind a waiting writer,
so shouldn't this be QW_MASK_FAIR=~0 and QW_MASK_UNFAIR=~QW_WAITING ?

> +/**
> + * wait_in_queue - Add to queue and wait until it is at the head
> + * @lock: Pointer to queue rwlock structure
> + * @node: Node pointer to be added to the queue
> + *
> + * The use of smp_wmb() is to make sure that the other CPUs see the change
> + * ASAP.
> + */
> +static __always_inline void
> +wait_in_queue(struct qrwlock *lock, struct qrwnode *node)
> +{
> + struct qrwnode *prev;
> +
> + node->next = NULL;
> + node->wait = true;
> + prev = xchg(&lock->waitq, node);
> + if (prev) {
> + prev->next = node;
> + smp_wmb();
> + /*
> + * Wait until the waiting flag is off
> + */
> + while (ACCESS_ONCE(node->wait))
> + cpu_relax();
> + }
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * signal_next - Signal the next one in queue to be at the head
> + * @lock: Pointer to queue rwlock structure
> + * @node: Node pointer to the current head of queue
> + */
> +static __always_inline void
> +signal_next(struct qrwlock *lock, struct qrwnode *node)
> +{
> + struct qrwnode *next;
> +
> + /*
> + * Try to notify the next node first without disturbing the cacheline
> + * of the lock. If that fails, check to see if it is the last node
> + * and so should clear the wait queue.
> + */
> + next = ACCESS_ONCE(node->next);
> + if (likely(next))
> + goto notify_next;
> +
> + /*
> + * Clear the wait queue if it is the last node
> + */
> + if ((ACCESS_ONCE(lock->waitq) == node) &&
> + (cmpxchg(&lock->waitq, node, NULL) == node))
> + return;
> + /*
> + * Wait until the next one in queue set up the next field
> + */
> + while (likely(!(next = ACCESS_ONCE(node->next))))
> + cpu_relax();
> + /*
> + * The next one in queue is now at the head
> + */
> +notify_next:
> + barrier();
> + ACCESS_ONCE(next->wait) = false;
> + smp_wmb();
> +}

I believe this could be unified with mspin_lock() / mspin_unlock() in
kernel/mutex.c ? (there is already talk of extending these functions
to be used by rwsem for adaptive spinning as well...)


Not a full review yet - I like the idea of making rwlock more fair but
I haven't dug too much into the details yet.

--
Michel "Walken" Lespinasse
A program is never fully debugged until the last user dies.
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