Re: [PATCH - resend*2] VFS: use synchronize_rcu_expedited() in namespace_unlock()

From: Al Viro
Date: Thu Nov 29 2018 - 18:52:33 EST


On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 10:33:18AM +1100, NeilBrown wrote:
>
> The synchronize_rcu() in namespace_unlock() is called every time
> a filesystem is unmounted. If a great many filesystems are mounted,
> this can cause a noticable slow-down in, for example, system shutdown.
>
> The sequence:
> mkdir -p /tmp/Mtest/{0..5000}
> time for i in /tmp/Mtest/*; do mount -t tmpfs tmpfs $i ; done
> time umount /tmp/Mtest/*
>
> on a 4-cpu VM can report 8 seconds to mount the tmpfs filesystems, and
> 100 seconds to unmount them.
>
> Boot the same VM with 1 CPU and it takes 18 seconds to mount the
> tmpfs filesystems, but only 36 to unmount.
>
> If we change the synchronize_rcu() to synchronize_rcu_expedited()
> the umount time on a 4-cpu VM drop to 0.6 seconds
>
> I think this 200-fold speed up is worth the slightly high system
> impact of using synchronize_rcu_expedited().
>
> Acked-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> (from general rcu perspective)
> Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxxx>
> ---
>
> Al Viro says "I can live with this one" but this still hasn't landed.
> Maybe someone else could apply it?

Applied (in work.misc, once I push it out)