Re: [PATCH] sched/core: add unlikely in group_has_capacity()

From: Qi Zheng
Date: Tue Aug 11 2020 - 21:49:59 EST


On 2020/8/7 上午10:47, Qi Zheng wrote:
Yeah, because of the following two points, I also think
the probability is 0%:
a) the sd is protected by rcu lock, and load_balance()
   func is between rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock().
b) the sgs is a local variable.

So in the group_classify(), the env->sd->imbalance_pct and
the sgs will not be changed. May I remove the duplicate check
from group_has_capacity() and resubmit a patch?

Yours,
Qi Zheng

On 2020/8/6 下午10:45, Ingo Molnar wrote:

* Qi Zheng <arch0.zheng@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

1. The group_has_capacity() function is only called in
    group_classify().
2. Before calling the group_has_capacity() function,
    group_is_overloaded() will first judge the following
    formula, if it holds, the group_classify() will directly
    return the group_overloaded.

    (sgs->group_capacity * imbalance_pct) <
                         (sgs->group_runnable * 100)

Therefore, when the group_has_capacity() is called, the
probability that the above formalu holds is very small. Hint
compilers about that.

Signed-off-by: Qi Zheng <arch0.zheng@xxxxxxxxx>
---
  kernel/sched/fair.c | 4 ++--
  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index 2ba8f230feb9..9074fd5e23b2 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -8234,8 +8234,8 @@ group_has_capacity(unsigned int imbalance_pct, struct sg_lb_stats *sgs)
      if (sgs->sum_nr_running < sgs->group_weight)
          return true;
-    if ((sgs->group_capacity * imbalance_pct) <
-            (sgs->group_runnable * 100))
+    if (unlikely((sgs->group_capacity * imbalance_pct) <
+            (sgs->group_runnable * 100)))
          return false;

Isn't the probability that this second check will match around 0%?

I.e. wouldn't the right fix be to remove the duplicate check from
group_has_capacity(), because it's already been checked in
group_classify()? Maybe while leaving a comment in place?

Thanks,

    Ingo


Hi,

As Valentin and I discussed in the patch below, simply removing the
check may not be completely harmless.

[PATCH]sched/fair: Remove the duplicate check from
group_has_capacity() :
- if ((sgs->group_capacity * imbalance_pct) <
- (sgs->group_runnable * 100))
- return false;


If sum_nr_running < group_weight, we won't evaluate it.
If sum_nr_running > group_weight, we either won't call into
group_has_capacity() or we'll have checked it already in
group_overloaded().
But in the case of sum_nr_running == group_weight, we can
run to this check.

Although I also think it is unlikely to cause the significant
capacity pressure at the == case, but I'm not sure whether there
are some special scenarios. such as some cpus in sg->cpumask are
no longer active, or other scenarios?

So adding the unlikely() in group_has_capacity() may be the safest
way.

Add Valentin Schneider <valentin.schneider@xxxxxxx>.

Yours,
Qi Zheng