Re: [PATCH v2 5/6] x86/xen: Add a Xen-specific sync_core() implementation

[Borislav Petkov]

On Fri, Dec 02, 2016 at 09:38:38AM -0800, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> apply_alternatives, unfortunately.  It's performance-critical because
> it's intensely stupid and does sync_core() for every single patch.
> Fixing that would be nice, too.

So I did experiment at the time to batch that sync_core() and interrupts
disabling in text_poke_early() but that amounted to almost nothing.
That's why I didn't bother chasing this further. I can try to dig out
that old thread...

/me goes and searches...

ah, here's something:

SNB:
* before:
[    0.011707] SMP alternatives: Starting apply_alternatives...
[    0.011784] SMP alternatives: done.
[    0.011806] Freeing SMP alternatives: 20k freed

* after:
[    0.011699] SMP alternatives: Starting apply_alternatives...
[    0.011721] SMP alternatives: done.
[    0.011743] Freeing SMP alternatives: 20k freed

-> 63 microseconds speedup


* kvm guest:
* before:
[    0.017005] SMP alternatives: Starting apply_alternatives...
[    0.019024] SMP alternatives: done.
[    0.020119] Freeing SMP alternatives: 20k freed

* after:
[    0.015008] SMP alternatives: Starting apply_alternatives...
[    0.016029] SMP alternatives: done.
[    0.017118] Freeing SMP alternatives: 20k freed

-> ~3 milliseconds speedup

---

I tried something simple like this:

---
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c b/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
index 1850592f4700..f4d5689ea503 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
@@ -253,10 +253,13 @@ void __init_or_module apply_alternatives(struct alt_instr *start,
                                         struct alt_instr *end)
 {
        struct alt_instr *a;
+       unsigned long flags;
        u8 *instr, *replacement;
        u8 insnbuf[MAX_PATCH_LEN];

        DPRINTK("%s: alt table %p -> %p\n", __func__, start, end);
+
+       local_irq_save(flags);
        /*
         * The scan order should be from start to end. A later scanned
         * alternative code can overwrite a previous scanned alternative code.
@@ -284,8 +287,10 @@ void __init_or_module apply_alternatives(struct alt_instr *start,
                add_nops(insnbuf + a->replacementlen,
                         a->instrlen - a->replacementlen);

-               text_poke_early(instr, insnbuf, a->instrlen);
+               memcpy(instr, insnbuf, a->instrlen);
        }
+       sync_core();
+       local_irq_restore(flags);
 }

 #ifdef CONFIG_SMP
---

I could try and redo the measurements again but I doubt it'll be any
different. Unless I haven't made a mistake somewhere...

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

Good mailing practices for 400: avoid top-posting and trim the reply.