Re: [PATCH 1/1] epoll: remove wrong assert that ep_poll_callback is always called with irqs off

From: Roman Penyaev
Date: Tue Jan 08 2019 - 11:07:27 EST


On 2019-01-08 16:16, Davidlohr Bueso wrote:
On 2019-01-08 04:42, Roman Penyaev wrote:
What we can do:

a) disable irqs if we are not in interrupt.
b) revert the patch completely.

David, is it really crucial in terms of performance to avoid double
local_irq_save() on Xen on this ep_poll_callback() hot path?

Note that such optimizations are also relevant for baremetal, ie: x86
PUSHF + POPF can be pretty expensive because of insn dependencies.


For example why not to do the following:

if (!in_interrupt())
local_irq_save(flags);
read_lock(ep->lock);

with huge comment explaining performance number.

Or just give up and simply revert the original patch completely
and always call read_lock_irqsave().

Yeah so the reason why I had done the other epoll lock irq
optimizations was because they were painfully obvious.
ep_poll_callback(), however is a different beast, as you've
encountered. I vote for not shooting ourselves in the foot and just
dropping this patch -- most large performance benefits will come from
microbenches anyway.

Then I will send another patch which changes read_lock() on read_lock_irqsave(),
since simple revert of the original patch won't work.

Thanks.

--
Roman