Re: [PATCH v4 net-next 09/11] skbuff: allow to optionally use NAPI cache from __alloc_skb()

[Paolo Abeni]

On Thu, 2021-02-11 at 14:28 +0000, Alexander Lobakin wrote:
> From: Paolo Abeni <pabeni@xxxxxxxxxx> on Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:16:40 +0100 wrote:
> > What about changing __napi_alloc_skb() to always use
> > the __napi_build_skb(), for both kmalloc and page backed skbs? That is,
> > always doing the 'data' allocation in __napi_alloc_skb() - either via
> > page_frag or via kmalloc() - and than call __napi_build_skb().
> > 
> > I think that should avoid adding more checks in __alloc_skb() and
> > should probably reduce the number of conditional used
> > by __napi_alloc_skb().
> 
> I thought of this too. But this will introduce conditional branch
> to set or not skb->head_frag. So one branch less in __alloc_skb(),
> one branch more here, and we also lose the ability to __alloc_skb()
> with decached head.

Just to try to be clear, I mean something alike the following (not even
build tested). In the fast path it has less branches than the current
code - for both kmalloc and page_frag allocation.

---
diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c
index 785daff48030..a242fbe4730e 100644
--- a/net/core/skbuff.c
+++ b/net/core/skbuff.c
@@ -506,23 +506,12 @@ struct sk_buff *__napi_alloc_skb(struct napi_struct *napi, unsigned int len,
 				 gfp_t gfp_mask)
 {
 	struct napi_alloc_cache *nc;
+	bool head_frag, pfmemalloc;
 	struct sk_buff *skb;
 	void *data;
 
 	len += NET_SKB_PAD + NET_IP_ALIGN;
 
-	/* If requested length is either too small or too big,
-	 * we use kmalloc() for skb->head allocation.
-	 */
-	if (len <= SKB_WITH_OVERHEAD(1024) ||
-	    len > SKB_WITH_OVERHEAD(PAGE_SIZE) ||
-	    (gfp_mask & (__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM | GFP_DMA))) {
-		skb = __alloc_skb(len, gfp_mask, SKB_ALLOC_RX, NUMA_NO_NODE);
-		if (!skb)
-			goto skb_fail;
-		goto skb_success;
-	}
-
 	nc = this_cpu_ptr(&napi_alloc_cache);
 	len += SKB_DATA_ALIGN(sizeof(struct skb_shared_info));
 	len = SKB_DATA_ALIGN(len);
@@ -530,25 +519,34 @@ struct sk_buff *__napi_alloc_skb(struct napi_struct *napi, unsigned int len,
 	if (sk_memalloc_socks())
 		gfp_mask |= __GFP_MEMALLOC;
 
-	data = page_frag_alloc(&nc->page, len, gfp_mask);
+	if (len <= SKB_WITH_OVERHEAD(1024) ||
+            len > SKB_WITH_OVERHEAD(PAGE_SIZE) ||
+            (gfp_mask & (__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM | GFP_DMA))) {
+		data = kmalloc_reserve(len, gfp_mask, NUMA_NO_NODE, &pfmemalloc);
+		head_frag = 0;
+		len = 0;
+	} else {
+		data = page_frag_alloc(&nc->page, len, gfp_mask);
+		pfmemalloc = nc->page.pfmemalloc;
+		head_frag = 1;
+	}
 	if (unlikely(!data))
 		return NULL;
 
 	skb = __build_skb(data, len);
 	if (unlikely(!skb)) {
-		skb_free_frag(data);
+		if (head_frag)
+			skb_free_frag(data);
+		else
+			kfree(data);
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
-	if (nc->page.pfmemalloc)
-		skb->pfmemalloc = 1;
-	skb->head_frag = 1;
+	skb->pfmemalloc = pfmemalloc;
+	skb->head_frag = head_frag;
 
-skb_success:
 	skb_reserve(skb, NET_SKB_PAD + NET_IP_ALIGN);
 	skb->dev = napi->dev;
-
-skb_fail:
 	return skb;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(__napi_alloc_skb);