Re: [PATCH] sched/isolation: Allow "isolcpus=" to skip unknown sub-parameters

From: Peter Xu
Date: Fri Feb 14 2020 - 14:40:16 EST


On Tue, Feb 04, 2020 at 11:16:39AM -0500, Peter Xu wrote:
> The "isolcpus=" parameter allows sub-parameters to exist before the
> cpulist is specified, and if it sees unknown sub-parameters the whole
> parameter will be ignored. This design is incompatible with itself
> when we add more sub-parameters to "isolcpus=", because the old
> kernels will not recognize the new "isolcpus=" sub-parameters, then it
> will invalidate the whole parameter so the CPU isolation will not
> really take effect if we start to use the new sub-parameters while
> later we reboot into an old kernel. Instead we will see this when
> booting the old kernel:
>
> isolcpus: Error, unknown flag
>
> The better and compatible way is to allow "isolcpus=" to skip unknown
> sub-parameters, so that even if we add new sub-parameters to it the
> old kernel will still be able to behave as usual even if with the new
> sub-parameter is specified.
>
> Ideally this patch should be there when we introduce the first
> sub-parameter for "isolcpus=", so it's already a bit late. However
> late is better than nothing.

Ping - Hi, Thomas, do you have any further comment on this patch?

Thanks,

--
Peter Xu