[PATCH 2/4] sched: Document Program-Order guarantees

[Peter Zijlstra]

These are some notes on the scheduler locking and how it provides
program order guarantees on SMP systems.

Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 kernel/sched/core.c |  142 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 142 insertions(+)

--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -1905,6 +1905,148 @@ static void ttwu_queue(struct task_struc
 	raw_spin_unlock(&rq->lock);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Notes on Program-Order guarantees on SMP systems.
+ *
+ *
+ *   PREEMPTION/MIGRATION
+ *
+ * Regular preemption/migration is safe because as long as the task is runnable
+ * migrations involve both rq locks, albeit not (necessarily) at the same time.
+ *
+ * So we get (we allow 3 CPU migrations):
+ *
+ *   CPU0            CPU1            CPU2
+ *
+ *   LOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *   sched-out X
+ *   sched-in Y
+ *   UNLOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *
+ *                                   LOCK rq(0)->lock // MB against CPU0
+ *                                   dequeue X
+ *                                   UNLOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *
+ *                                   LOCK rq(1)->lock
+ *                                   enqueue X
+ *                                   UNLOCK rq(1)->lock
+ *
+ *                   LOCK rq(1)->lock // MB against CPU2
+ *                   sched-out Z
+ *                   sched-in X
+ *                   UNLOCK rq(1)->lock
+ *
+ * and the first LOCK rq(0) on CPU2 gives a full order against the UNLOCK rq(0)
+ * on CPU0. Similarly the LOCK rq(1) on CPU1 provides full order against the
+ * UNLOCK rq(1) on CPU2, therefore by the time task X runs on CPU1 it must
+ * observe the state it left behind on CPU0.
+ *
+ *
+ *   BLOCKING -- aka. SLEEP + WAKEUP
+ *
+ * For blocking things are a little more interesting, because when we dequeue
+ * the task, we don't need to acquire the old rq lock in order to migrate it.
+ *
+ * Say CPU0 does a wait_event() and CPU1 does the wake() and migrates the task
+ * to CPU2 (the most complex example):
+ *
+ *   CPU0 (schedule)  CPU1 (try_to_wake_up) CPU2 (sched_ttwu_pending)
+ *
+ *   X->state = UNINTERRUPTIBLE
+ *   MB
+ *   if (cond)
+ *     break
+ *                    cond = true
+ *
+ *   LOCK rq(0)->lock LOCK X->pi_lock
+ *
+ *   dequeue X
+ *                    while (X->on_cpu)
+ *                      cpu_relax()
+ *   sched-out X
+ *   RELEASE
+ *   X->on_cpu = 0
+ *                    RMB
+ *                    X->state = WAKING
+ *                    set_task_cpu(X,2)
+ *                      WMB
+ *                      ti(X)->cpu = 2
+ *
+ *                    llist_add(X, rq(2)) // MB
+ *                                          llist_del_all() // MB
+ *
+ *                                          LOCK rq(2)->lock
+ *                                          enqueue X
+ *                                          X->state = RUNNING
+ *                                          UNLOCK rq(2)->lock
+ *
+ *                                          LOCK rq(2)->lock
+ *                                          sched-out Z
+ *                                          sched-in X
+ *                                          UNLOCK rq(1)->lock
+ *
+ *                                          if (cond) // _TRUE_
+ *                    UNLOCK X->pi_lock
+ *   UNLOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *
+ * So in this case the scheduler does not provide an obvious full barrier; but
+ * the smp_store_release() in finish_lock_switch(), paired with the control-dep
+ * and smp_rmb() in try_to_wake_up() form a release-acquire pair and fully
+ * order things between CPU0 and CPU1.
+ *
+ * The llist primitives order things between CPU1 and CPU2 -- the alternative
+ * is CPU1 doing the remote enqueue (the alternative path in ttwu_queue()) in
+ * which case the rq(2)->lock release/acquire will order things between them.
+ *
+ * Which again leads to the guarantee that by the time X gets to run on CPU2
+ * it must observe the state it left behind on CPU0.
+ *
+ * However; for blocking there is a second guarantee we must provide, namely we
+ * must observe the state that lead to our wakeup. That is, not only must X
+ * observe its own prior state, it must also observe the @cond store.
+ *
+ * This too is achieved in the above, since CPU1 does the waking, we only need
+ * the ordering between CPU1 and CPU2, which is the same as the above.
+ *
+ *
+ * There is however a much more interesting case for this guarantee, where X
+ * never makes it off CPU0:
+ *
+ *   CPU0 (schedule)  CPU1 (try_to_wake_up)
+ *
+ *   X->state = UNINTERRUPTIBLE
+ *   MB
+ *   if (cond)
+ *     break
+ *                    cond = true
+ *
+ *                    WMB (aka smp_mb__before_spinlock)
+ *                    LOCK X->pi_lock
+ *
+ *                    if (X->on_rq)
+ *                      LOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *                      X->state = RUNNING
+ *                      UNLOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *
+ *   LOCK rq(0)->lock // MB against CPU1
+ *   UNLOCK rq(0)->lock
+ *
+ *   if (cond) // _TRUE_
+ *
+ *                    UNLOCK X->pi_lock
+ *
+ * Here our task X never quite leaves CPU0, the wakeup happens before we can
+ * dequeue and schedule someone else. In this case we must still observe cond
+ * after our call to schedule() completes.
+ *
+ * This is achieved by the smp_mb__before_spinlock() WMB which ensures the store
+ * cannot leak inside the LOCK, and LOCK rq(0)->lock on CPU0 provides full order
+ * against the UNLOCK rq(0)->lock from CPU1. Furthermore our load of cond cannot
+ * happen before this same LOCK.
+ *
+ * Therefore, again, we're good.
+ */
+
 /**
  * try_to_wake_up - wake up a thread
  * @p: the thread to be awakened


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