[PATCH] random: schedule mix_interrupt_randomness() less often

From: Jason A. Donenfeld
Date: Thu Jun 16 2022 - 06:51:06 EST


It used to be that mix_interrupt_randomness() would credit 1 bit each
time it ran, and so add_interrupt_randomness() would schedule mix() to
run every 64 interrupts, a fairly arbitrary number, but nonetheless
considered to be a decent enough conservative estimate.

Since e3e33fc2ea7f ("random: do not use input pool from hard IRQs"),
mix() is now able to credit multiple bits, depending on the number of
calls to add(). This was done for reasons separate from this commit, but
it has the nice side effect of enabling this patch to schedule mix()
less often.

Currently the rules are:
a) Credit 1 bit for every 64 calls to add().
b) Schedule mix() once a second that add() is called.
c) Schedule mix() once every 64 calls to add().

Rules (a) and (c) no longer need to be coupled. It's still important to
have _some_ value in (c), so that we don't "over-saturate" the fast
pool, but the once per second we get from rule (b) is a plenty enough
baseline. So, by increasing the 64 in rule (c) to something larger, we
avoid calling queue_work_on() as frequently during irq storms.

This commit changes that 64 in rule (c) to be 1024, which means we
schedule mix() 16 times less often. And it does *not* need to change the
64 in rule (a).

Fixes: 58340f8e952b ("random: defer fast pool mixing to worker")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dominik Brodowski <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/char/random.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/char/random.c b/drivers/char/random.c
index 655e327d425e..d0e4c89c4fcb 100644
--- a/drivers/char/random.c
+++ b/drivers/char/random.c
@@ -1009,7 +1009,7 @@ void add_interrupt_randomness(int irq)
if (new_count & MIX_INFLIGHT)
return;

- if (new_count < 64 && !time_is_before_jiffies(fast_pool->last + HZ))
+ if (new_count < 1024 && !time_is_before_jiffies(fast_pool->last + HZ))
return;

if (unlikely(!fast_pool->mix.func))
--
2.35.1