Re: [PATCH] tracepoint: rcuidle: use rcu_is_watching() and tree-rcu

[Paul E. McKenney]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 07:56:17PM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> ----- On Mar 10, 2020, at 7:52 PM, paulmck paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 07:44:33PM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> >> ----- On Mar 10, 2020, at 4:53 PM, paulmck paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >> 
> >> > On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 04:20:54PM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> >> >> commit e6753f23d961 ("tracepoint: Make rcuidle tracepoint callers use
> >> >> SRCU") aimed at improving performance of rcuidle tracepoints by using
> >> >> SRCU rather than temporarily enabling tree-rcu every time.
> >> >> 
> >> >> commit 865e63b04e9b ("tracing: Add back in rcu_irq_enter/exit_irqson()
> >> >> for rcuidle tracepoints") adds back the high-overhead enabling of
> >> >> tree-rcu because perf expects RCU to be watching when called from
> >> >> rcuidle tracepoints.
> >> >> 
> >> >> It turns out that by using "rcu_is_watching()" and conditionally
> >> >> calling the high-overhead rcu_irq_enter/exit_irqson(), the original
> >> >> motivation for using SRCU in the first place disappears.
> >> > 
> >> > Adding Alexei on CC for his thoughts, given that these were his
> >> > benchmarks.  I believe that he also has additional use cases.
> >> 
> >> Good point! Sorry I forgot to add Alexei to my CC list for that
> >> patch.
> >> 
> >> > But given the use cases you describe, this seems plausible.  This does
> >> > mean that tracepoints cannot be attached to the CPU-hotplug code that
> >> > runs on the incoming/outgoing CPU early/late in that process, though
> >> > that might be OK.
> >> 
> >> Do you mean standard tracepoints or rcuidle tracepoints ?
> >> 
> >> Are there any such tracepoints early/late in the cpu hotplug code today ?
> > 
> > I have no idea.  You would know better than I.  However, I would expect
> > that the same common-code issue that applies to exception-entry/exit
> > code might also apply to the CPU hotplug code.
> 
> I would also expect early/late CPU hotplug states to fall into the same
> category of "low-level entry/exit" code which Thomas would like to hide
> from instrumentation.

That decision I must leave to you guys.

							Thanx, Paul