Re: [PATCH v13 3/6] mm/vmstat: manage per-CPU stats from CPU context when NOHZ full

[Marcelo Tosatti]

On Fri, Jan 06, 2023 at 11:01:54PM +0800, Hillf Danton wrote:
> On 6 Jan 2023 09:51:00 -0300 Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > On Fri, Jan 06, 2023 at 08:12:44AM +0800, Hillf Danton wrote:
> > > 
> > > Regression wrt V12 if timer is added on the CPU that is not doing HK_TYPE_TIMER?
> > 
> > Before this change, the timer was managed (and queued on an isolated
> > CPU) by vmstat_shepherd. Now it is managed (and queued) by the local
> > CPU, so there is no regression.
> 
> Given vm stats folded when returning to userspace, queuing the delayed work
> barely makes sense in the first place. If it can be canceled, queuing it burns
> cycles with nothing earned. Otherwise vm stats got folded already.

Agree, but you can't know whether return to userspace will occur 
before the timer is fired.

So queueing the timer is to _ensure_ that eventually vmstats will be 
synced (which maintains the current timing behaviour wrt vmstat syncs).

Also don't think the queueing cost is significant: it only happens
for the first vmstat dirty item.

> Nor does shepherd even without delay. And the right thing is only make shepherd
> leave isolated CPUs intact.
> 
>