Re: [BUG nohz]: wrong user and system time accounting

[Wanpeng Li]

2017-03-24 4:55 GMT+08:00 Luiz Capitulino <lcapitulino@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> When there are two or more tasks executing in user-space and
> taking 100% of a nohz_full CPU, top reports 70% system time
> and 30% user time utilization. Sometimes I'm even able to get
> 100% system time and 0% user time.
>
> This was reproduced with latest Linus tree (093b995), but I
> don't believe it's a regression (at least not a recent one)
> as I can reproduce it with older kernels. Also, I have
> CONFIG_IRQ_TIME_ACCOUNTING=y and haven't tried to reproduce
> without it yet.
>
> Below you'll find the steps to reproduce and some initial
> analysis.
>
> Steps to reproduce
> ------------------
>
> 1. Set up a CPU for nohz_full with isolcpus= nohz_full=
>
> 2. Pin two tasks that hog the CPU 100% of the time to that CPU
>
> 3. Run top -d1 and check system time
>
> NOTE: When there's only one task hogging a nohz_full CPU, top
>       shows 100% user-time, as expected

I just saw at most 12% system time instead of 30% or 100%. Could you
grep HZ /boot/config-`uname -r` and post here?

Regards,
Wanpeng Li

>
> Initial analysis
> ----------------
>
> When tracing vtime accounting functions and the user-space/kernel
> transitions when the issue is taking place, I see several of the
> following:
>
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711104: function:             enter_from_user_mode <-- apic_timer_interrupt
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711105: function:             __context_tracking_exit <-- enter_from_user_mode
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711105: bprint:               __context_tracking_exit.part.4: new state=1 cur state=1 active=1
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711105: function:             vtime_account_user <-- __context_tracking_exit.part.4
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711105: function:             smp_apic_timer_interrupt <-- apic_timer_interrupt
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711106: function:             irq_enter <-- smp_apic_timer_interrupt
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711106: function:             tick_sched_timer <-- __hrtimer_run_queues
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711108: function:             irq_exit <-- smp_apic_timer_interrupt
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711108: function:             __context_tracking_enter <-- prepare_exit_to_usermode
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711108: bprint:               __context_tracking_enter.part.2: new state=1 cur state=0 active=1
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711109: function:             vtime_user_enter <-- __context_tracking_enter.part.2
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711109: function:             __vtime_account_system <-- vtime_user_enter
> hog-10552 [015]  1132.711109: function:             account_system_time <-- __vtime_account_system
>
> On entering the kernel due to a timer interrupt, vtime_account_user()
> skips user-time accounting. Then later on when returning to user-space,
> vtime_user_enter() is probably accounting the whole time (ie. user-space
> plus kernel-space) to system time.
>
> Now, when does vtime_account_user() skips accounting? Well, when the
> time delta is less then one jiffie. This would imply that vtime_account_user()
> is being called less than one jiffie since the last accounting, but I haven't
> confirmed any of this yet.