Re: [patch 2/4] task isolation: sync vmstats on return to userspace

[nsaenzju]

On Fri, 2021-07-30 at 17:18 -0300, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> The logic to disable vmstat worker thread, when entering
> nohz full, does not cover all scenarios. For example, it is possible
> for the following to happen:
> 
> 1) enter nohz_full, which calls refresh_cpu_vm_stats, syncing the stats.
> 2) app runs mlock, which increases counters for mlock'ed pages.
> 3) start -RT loop
> 
> Since refresh_cpu_vm_stats from nohz_full logic can happen _before_
> the mlock, vmstat shepherd can restart vmstat worker thread on
> the CPU in question.
> 
> To fix this, use the task isolation prctl interface to quiesce 
> deferred actions when returning to userspace.

Even though this is mostly targeted at nohz_full users, I believe I haven't
seen anything in this series that forces the feature to be run on nohz_full
CPUs (this is a good thing IMO). So, I'd suggest to reword the patch
description so it doesn't imply nohz_full is necessary to use this.

-- 
Nicolás Sáenz