Re: [PATCH v2] fsverity: Remove WQ_UNBOUND from fsverity read workqueue

[Eric Biggers]

On Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 11:33:25AM -0800, Nathan Huckleberry wrote:
> WQ_UNBOUND causes significant scheduler latency on ARM64/Android.  This
> is problematic for latency sensitive workloads, like I/O
> post-processing.
> 
> Removing WQ_UNBOUND gives a 96% reduction in fsverity workqueue related
> scheduler latency and improves app cold startup times by ~30ms.
> WQ_UNBOUND was also removed from the dm-verity workqueue for the same
> reason [1].
> 
> This code was tested by running Android app startup benchmarks and
> measuring how long the fsverity workqueue spent in the runnable state.
> 
> Before
> Total workqueue scheduler latency: 553800us
> After
> Total workqueue scheduler latency: 18962us
> 
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230202012348.885402-1-nhuck@xxxxxxxxxx/
> 
> Signed-off-by: Nathan Huckleberry <nhuck@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changelog:
> v1 -> v2:
> - Added comment about WQ_UNBOUND
> - Added info about related dm-verity patches in commit message
> 
>  fs/verity/verify.c | 10 +++++-----
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/verity/verify.c b/fs/verity/verify.c
> index f50e3b5b52c9..782b8b4a24c1 100644
> --- a/fs/verity/verify.c
> +++ b/fs/verity/verify.c
> @@ -387,15 +387,15 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(fsverity_enqueue_verify_work);
>  int __init fsverity_init_workqueue(void)
>  {
>  	/*
> -	 * Use an unbound workqueue to allow bios to be verified in parallel
> -	 * even when they happen to complete on the same CPU.  This sacrifices
> -	 * locality, but it's worthwhile since hashing is CPU-intensive.
> -	 *
>  	 * Also use a high-priority workqueue to prioritize verification work,
>  	 * which blocks reads from completing, over regular application tasks.
> +	 *
> +	 * This workqueue is not marked as unbound for performance reasons.
> +	 * Using an unbound workqueue for crypto operations causes excessive
> +	 * scheduler latency on ARM64.
>  	 */
>  	fsverity_read_workqueue = alloc_workqueue("fsverity_read_queue",
> -						  WQ_UNBOUND | WQ_HIGHPRI,
> +						  WQ_HIGHPRI,
>  						  num_online_cpus());

Applied to https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/fs/fsverity/linux.git/log/?h=for-next

I adjusted the comment slightly so that the first paragraph doesn't start with
"Also".

- Eric