Re: [PATCH RFC] kernel: decouple TASK_WORK TWA_SIGNAL handling from signals

[Jens Axboe]

On 10/1/20 9:19 AM, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 01 2020 at 08:29, Jens Axboe wrote:
>> This adds TIF_TASKWORK for x86, which if set, will return true on
>> checking for pending signals. That in turn causes tasks to restart the
>> system call, which will run the added task_work.
> 
> Huch? The syscall restart does not cause the task work to run.

Yeah that's poorly worded, I'll make that more accurate.

>> If TIF_TASKWORK is available, we'll use that for notification when
>> TWA_SIGNAL is specified.  If it isn't available, the existing
>> TIF_SIGPENDING path is used.
> 
> Bah. Yet another TIF flag just because.

...

>> --- a/fs/io_uring.c
>> +++ b/fs/io_uring.c
>> @@ -1767,7 +1767,7 @@ static int io_req_task_work_add(struct io_kiocb *req, struct callback_head *cb,
>>  		notify = TWA_SIGNAL;
>>  
>>  	ret = task_work_add(tsk, cb, notify);
>> -	if (!ret)
>> +	if (!ret && !notify)
> 
> !notify assumes that TWA_RESUME == 0. Fun to debug if that ever changes.

Agree, I'll make that

	if (!ret && notify != TWA_SIGNAL)

instead, that's more sane.

>>  		wake_up_process(tsk);
>> --- a/kernel/task_work.c
>> +++ b/kernel/task_work.c
>> @@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ int
>>  task_work_add(struct task_struct *task, struct callback_head *work, int notify)
>>  {
>>  	struct callback_head *head;
>> -	unsigned long flags;
>>  
>>  	do {
>>  		head = READ_ONCE(task->task_works);
>> @@ -41,7 +40,10 @@ task_work_add(struct task_struct *task, struct callback_head *work, int notify)
>>  	case TWA_RESUME:
>>  		set_notify_resume(task);
>>  		break;
>> -	case TWA_SIGNAL:
>> +	case TWA_SIGNAL: {
>> +#ifndef TIF_TASKWORK
>> +		unsigned long flags;
>> +
>>  		/*
>>  		 * Only grab the sighand lock if we don't already have some
>>  		 * task_work pending. This pairs with the smp_store_mb()
>> @@ -53,7 +55,12 @@ task_work_add(struct task_struct *task, struct callback_head *work, int notify)
>>  			signal_wake_up(task, 0);
>>  			unlock_task_sighand(task, &flags);
>>  		}
>> +#else
>> +		set_tsk_thread_flag(task, TIF_TASKWORK);
>> +		wake_up_process(task);
>> +#endif
> 
> This is really a hack. TWA_SIGNAL is a misnomer with the new
> functionality and combined with the above
> 
>          if (!ret && !notify)
>   		wake_up_process(tsk);
> 
> there is not really a big difference between TWA_RESUME and TWA_SIGNAL
> anymore. Just the delivery mode and the syscall restart magic.

Agree, maybe it'd make more sense to rename TWA_SIGNAL to TWA_RESTART or
something like that. The only user of this is io_uring, so it's not like
it's a lot of churn to do so.

>>  static unsigned long exit_to_user_mode_loop(struct pt_regs *regs,
>>  					    unsigned long ti_work)
>>  {
>> +	bool restart_sys = false;
>> +
>>  	/*
>>  	 * Before returning to user space ensure that all pending work
>>  	 * items have been completed.
>> @@ -157,8 +159,13 @@ static unsigned long exit_to_user_mode_loop(struct pt_regs *regs,
>>  		if (ti_work & _TIF_PATCH_PENDING)
>>  			klp_update_patch_state(current);
>>  
>> +		if (ti_work & _TIF_TASKWORK) {
>> +			task_work_run();
>> +			restart_sys = true;
>> +		}
>> +
>>  		if (ti_work & _TIF_SIGPENDING)
>> -			arch_do_signal(regs);
>> +			restart_sys |= !arch_do_signal(regs);
>>  
>>  		if (ti_work & _TIF_NOTIFY_RESUME) {
>>  			clear_thread_flag(TIF_NOTIFY_RESUME);
>> @@ -178,6 +185,9 @@ static unsigned long exit_to_user_mode_loop(struct pt_regs *regs,
>>  		ti_work = READ_ONCE(current_thread_info()->flags);
>>  	}
>>  
>> +	if (restart_sys)
>> +		arch_restart_syscall(regs);
>> +
> 
> How is that supposed to work?
> 
> Assume that both TIF_TASKWORK and TIF_SIGPENDING are set, i.e. after
> running task work and requesting syscall restart there is an actual
> signal to be delivered.

(Also see v2 for the restart change)

> This needs a lot more thoughts.

Definitely, which is why I'm posting it as an RFC. It fixes a real
performance regression, and there's no reliable way to use TWA_RESUME
that I can tell.

What kind of restart behavior do we need? Before this change, everytime
_TIF_SIGPENDING is set and we don't deliver a signal in the loop, we go
through the syscall restart code. After this change, we only do so at
the end. I'm assuming that's your objection?

For _TIF_TASKWORK, we'll always want to restat the system call, if we
were currently doing one. For signals, only if we didn't deliver a
signal. So we'll want to retain the restart inside signal delivery?

-- 
Jens Axboe