[PATCH v3 3/3] intel_idle: Add ibrs_off module parameter to force disable IBRS

[Waiman Long]

Commit bf5835bcdb96 ("intel_idle: Disable IBRS during long idle")
disables IBRS when the cstate is 6 or lower. However, there are
some use cases where a customer may want to use max_cstate=1 to
lower latency. Such use cases will suffer from the performance
degradation caused by the enabling of IBRS in the sibling idle thread.
Add a "ibrs_off" module parameter to force disable IBRS and the
CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE flag if set.

In the case of a Skylake server with max_cstate=1, this new ibrs_off
option will likely increase the IRQ response latency as IRQ will now
be disabled.

When running SPECjbb2015 with cstates set to C1 on a Skylake system.

First test when the kernel is booted with: "intel_idle.ibrs_off"
  max-jOPS = 117828, critical-jOPS = 66047

Then retest when the kernel is booted without the "intel_idle.ibrs_off"
added.
  max-jOPS = 116408, critical-jOPS = 58958

That means booting with "intel_idle.ibrs_off" improves performance by:
  max-jOPS:   1.2%, which could be considered noise range.
  critical-jOPS: 12%, which is definitely a solid improvement.

The admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst file is updated to add a description
about the new "ibrs_off" module parameter.

Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 drivers/idle/intel_idle.c                   | 14 ++++++++++++--
 2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
index b799a43da62e..8604e6d1fe2c 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ and ``idle=nomwait``.  If any of them is present in the kernel command line, the
 ``MWAIT`` instruction is not allowed to be used, so the initialization of
 ``intel_idle`` will fail.
 
-Apart from that there are four module parameters recognized by ``intel_idle``
+Apart from that there are five module parameters recognized by ``intel_idle``
 itself that can be set via the kernel command line (they cannot be updated via
 sysfs, so that is the only way to change their values).
 
@@ -216,6 +216,21 @@ are ignored).
 The idle states disabled this way can be enabled (on a per-CPU basis) from user
 space via ``sysfs``.
 
+The ``ibrs_off`` module parameter is a boolean flag (default to false). It is
+used to control if IBRS (Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation) should be
+turned off, if set, when the CPU enters an idle state.  This flag will not
+affect CPUs that are using Enhanced IBRS which can remain on with little
+performance impact.
+
+For some CPUs, IBRS will be selected as mitigation for Spectre v2 and Retbleed
+security vulnerabilities by default.  Leaving the IBRS mode on while idling may
+have a performance impact on its sibling CPU.  The IBRS mode will be turned off
+by default when the CPU enters into a deep idle state, but not in some
+shallower ones.  Setting the ``ibrs_off`` module parameter will force the IBRS
+mode to off when the CPU is in any one of the available idle states.  This may
+help performance of a sibling CPU at the expense of a slightly higher wakeup
+latency for the idle CPU.
+
 
 .. _intel-idle-core-and-package-idle-states:
 
diff --git a/drivers/idle/intel_idle.c b/drivers/idle/intel_idle.c
index 07fa23707b3c..8bbf1e6d845c 100644
--- a/drivers/idle/intel_idle.c
+++ b/drivers/idle/intel_idle.c
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ static int max_cstate = CPUIDLE_STATE_MAX - 1;
 static unsigned int disabled_states_mask __read_mostly;
 static unsigned int preferred_states_mask __read_mostly;
 static bool force_irq_on __read_mostly;
+static bool ibrs_off __read_mostly;
 
 static struct cpuidle_device __percpu *intel_idle_cpuidle_devices;
 
@@ -1907,12 +1908,15 @@ static void __init intel_idle_init_cstates_icpu(struct cpuidle_driver *drv)
 			WARN_ON_ONCE(state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE);
 			state->enter = intel_idle_xstate;
 		} else if (cpu_feature_enabled(X86_FEATURE_KERNEL_IBRS) &&
-			   state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IBRS) {
+			  ((state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IBRS) || ibrs_off)) {
 			/*
 			 * IBRS mitigation requires that C-states are entered
 			 * with interrupts disabled.
 			 */
-			WARN_ON_ONCE(state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE);
+			if (ibrs_off && (state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE))
+				state->flags &= ~CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE;
+			else
+				WARN_ON_ONCE(state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE);
 			state->enter = intel_idle_ibrs;
 		} else if (state->flags & CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE) {
 			state->enter = intel_idle_irq;
@@ -2165,3 +2169,9 @@ MODULE_PARM_DESC(preferred_cstates, "Mask of preferred idle states");
  * 'CPUIDLE_FLAG_INIT_XSTATE' and 'CPUIDLE_FLAG_IBRS' flags.
  */
 module_param(force_irq_on, bool, 0444);
+/*
+ * Force the disabling of IBRS when X86_FEATURE_KERNEL_IBRS is on and
+ * CPUIDLE_FLAG_IRQ_ENABLE isn't set.
+ */
+module_param(ibrs_off, bool, 0444);
+MODULE_PARM_DESC(ibrs_off, "Disable IBRS when idle");
-- 
2.31.1