Re: [RFC PATCH v2 6/6] sched/fair: Implement starvation monitor

[peterz]

On Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 11:56:04AM +0200, Juri Lelli wrote:
> Starting deadline server for lower priority classes right away when
> first task is enqueued might break guarantees, as tasks belonging to
> intermediate priority classes could be uselessly preempted. E.g., a well
> behaving (non hog) FIFO task can be preempted by NORMAL tasks even if
> there are still CPU cycles available for NORMAL tasks to run, as they'll
> be running inside the fair deadline server for some period of time.
> 
> To prevent this issue, implement a starvation monitor mechanism that
> starts the deadline server only if a (fair in this case) task hasn't
> been scheduled for some interval of time after it has been enqueued.
> Use pick/put functions to manage starvation monitor status.

One thing I considerd was scheduling this as a least-laxity entity --
such that it runs late, not early -- and start the server when
rq->nr_running != rq->cfs.h_nr_running, IOW when there's !fair tasks
around.

Not saying we should do it like that, but that's perhaps more
deterministic than this.