Re: x86: should clear_user() have alternatives?

[Borislav Petkov]

Hi Hugh,

On Mon, Feb 07, 2022 at 09:45:36PM -0800, Hugh Dickins wrote:
> I realize that dd'ing from /dev/zero to /dev/null, and sparse files on
> tmpfs, are not prime candidates for optimization; and I've no idea how
> much clear_user() normally gets used for long clears.

Right, we usually don't take such "optimizations" because the folks who
send them always come up with either microbenchmarks or only test on a
single machine.

> If I were capable of compiler asm, with alternatives, and knew at what
> length ERMS becomes advantageous when clearing, I would be sending you
> a proper patch.  As it is, I'm hoping to tempt someone else to do the
> work!  Or reject it as too niche to bother with.

Yap, looking at arch/x86/lib/clear_page_64.S - that's straight-forward
asm without special-cases noodles like __copy_user_nocache, for example,
so I wouldn't be opposed to someone

 - remodelling it so that you can have clear_user* variants there too,
 with the length supplied so that you can call a common function with
 arbitrary length and clear_page* can call it too. And then call them in
 a clear_user() version just like the clear_page() one which selects the
 proper target based on CPU feature flags.

 - testing this on bunch of modern machines with, say, a kernel build or
 some sensible benchmark so that we at least have some coverage

If the numbers are worth it - and judging by your quick testing above
they should be - then I don't mind taking that at all.

If only someone would have the time and diligence to do it properly...

:-)

Thx.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

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