[PATCH V2] sched/fair: Make sched-idle CPU selection consistent throughout

[Viresh Kumar]

There are instances where we keep searching for an idle CPU despite
already having a sched-idle CPU (in find_idlest_group_cpu(),
select_idle_smt() and select_idle_cpu() and then there are places where
we don't necessarily do that and return a sched-idle CPU as soon as we
find one (in select_idle_sibling()). This looks a bit inconsistent and
it may be worth having the same policy everywhere.

On the other hand, choosing a sched-idle CPU over a idle one shall be
beneficial from performance and power point of view as well, as we don't
need to get the CPU online from a deep idle state which wastes quite a
lot of time and energy and delays the scheduling of the newly woken up
task.

This patch tries to simplify code around sched-idle CPU selection and
make it consistent throughout.

Testing is done with the help of rt-app on hikey board (ARM64 octa-core,
2 clusters, 0-3 and 4-7). The cpufreq governor was set to performance to
avoid any side affects from CPU frequency. Following are the tests
performed:

Test 1: 1-cfs-task:

A single SCHED_NORMAL task is pinned to CPU5 which runs for 2333 us
out of 7777 us (so gives time for the cluster to go in deep idle
state).

Test 2: 1-cfs-1-idle-task:

A single SCHED_NORMAL task is pinned on CPU5 and single SCHED_IDLE
task is pinned on CPU6 (to make sure cluster 1 doesn't go in deep idle
state).

Test 3: 1-cfs-8-idle-task:

A single SCHED_NORMAL task is pinned on CPU5 and eight SCHED_IDLE
tasks are created which run forever (not pinned anywhere, so they run
on all CPUs). Checked with kernelshark that as soon as NORMAL task
sleeps, the SCHED_IDLE task starts running on CPU5.

And here are the results on mean latency (in us), using the "st" tool.

$ st 1-cfs-task/rt-app-cfs_thread-0.log
N       min     max     sum     mean    stddev
642     90      592     197180  307.134 109.906

$ st 1-cfs-1-idle-task/rt-app-cfs_thread-0.log
N       min     max     sum     mean    stddev
642     67      311     113850  177.336 41.4251

$ st 1-cfs-8-idle-task/rt-app-cfs_thread-0.log
N       min     max     sum     mean    stddev
643     29      173     41364   64.3297 13.2344

The mean latency when we need to:
- wakeup from deep idle state is 307 us.
- wakeup from shallow idle state is 177 us.
- preempt a SCHED_IDLE task is 64 us.

Signed-off-by: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
V1->V2:
- Updated commit log with the numbers received from rt-app tests.

 kernel/sched/fair.c | 34 ++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index a81c36472822..bb367f48c1ef 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -5545,7 +5545,7 @@ find_idlest_group_cpu(struct sched_group *group, struct task_struct *p, int this
 	unsigned int min_exit_latency = UINT_MAX;
 	u64 latest_idle_timestamp = 0;
 	int least_loaded_cpu = this_cpu;
-	int shallowest_idle_cpu = -1, si_cpu = -1;
+	int shallowest_idle_cpu = -1;
 	int i;
 
 	/* Check if we have any choice: */
@@ -5554,6 +5554,9 @@ find_idlest_group_cpu(struct sched_group *group, struct task_struct *p, int this
 
 	/* Traverse only the allowed CPUs */
 	for_each_cpu_and(i, sched_group_span(group), p->cpus_ptr) {
+		if (sched_idle_cpu(i))
+			return i;
+
 		if (available_idle_cpu(i)) {
 			struct rq *rq = cpu_rq(i);
 			struct cpuidle_state *idle = idle_get_state(rq);
@@ -5576,12 +5579,7 @@ find_idlest_group_cpu(struct sched_group *group, struct task_struct *p, int this
 				latest_idle_timestamp = rq->idle_stamp;
 				shallowest_idle_cpu = i;
 			}
-		} else if (shallowest_idle_cpu == -1 && si_cpu == -1) {
-			if (sched_idle_cpu(i)) {
-				si_cpu = i;
-				continue;
-			}
-
+		} else if (shallowest_idle_cpu == -1) {
 			load = cpu_load(cpu_rq(i));
 			if (load < min_load) {
 				min_load = load;
@@ -5590,11 +5588,7 @@ find_idlest_group_cpu(struct sched_group *group, struct task_struct *p, int this
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (shallowest_idle_cpu != -1)
-		return shallowest_idle_cpu;
-	if (si_cpu != -1)
-		return si_cpu;
-	return least_loaded_cpu;
+	return shallowest_idle_cpu != -1 ? shallowest_idle_cpu : least_loaded_cpu;
 }
 
 static inline int find_idlest_cpu(struct sched_domain *sd, struct task_struct *p,
@@ -5747,7 +5741,7 @@ static int select_idle_core(struct task_struct *p, struct sched_domain *sd, int
  */
 static int select_idle_smt(struct task_struct *p, int target)
 {
-	int cpu, si_cpu = -1;
+	int cpu;
 
 	if (!static_branch_likely(&sched_smt_present))
 		return -1;
@@ -5755,13 +5749,11 @@ static int select_idle_smt(struct task_struct *p, int target)
 	for_each_cpu(cpu, cpu_smt_mask(target)) {
 		if (!cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, p->cpus_ptr))
 			continue;
-		if (available_idle_cpu(cpu))
+		if (available_idle_cpu(cpu) || sched_idle_cpu(cpu))
 			return cpu;
-		if (si_cpu == -1 && sched_idle_cpu(cpu))
-			si_cpu = cpu;
 	}
 
-	return si_cpu;
+	return -1;
 }
 
 #else /* CONFIG_SCHED_SMT */
@@ -5790,7 +5782,7 @@ static int select_idle_cpu(struct task_struct *p, struct sched_domain *sd, int t
 	u64 time, cost;
 	s64 delta;
 	int this = smp_processor_id();
-	int cpu, nr = INT_MAX, si_cpu = -1;
+	int cpu, nr = INT_MAX;
 
 	this_sd = rcu_dereference(*this_cpu_ptr(&sd_llc));
 	if (!this_sd)
@@ -5818,13 +5810,11 @@ static int select_idle_cpu(struct task_struct *p, struct sched_domain *sd, int t
 
 	for_each_cpu_wrap(cpu, sched_domain_span(sd), target) {
 		if (!--nr)
-			return si_cpu;
+			return -1;
 		if (!cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, p->cpus_ptr))
 			continue;
-		if (available_idle_cpu(cpu))
+		if (available_idle_cpu(cpu) || sched_idle_cpu(cpu))
 			break;
-		if (si_cpu == -1 && sched_idle_cpu(cpu))
-			si_cpu = cpu;
 	}
 
 	time = cpu_clock(this) - time;
-- 
2.21.0.rc0.269.g1a574e7a288b