[PATCH] pid: reorder fields in pid_namespace to reduce false sharing

From: Mateusz Guzik

Date: Tue Jan 20 2026 - 15:48:27 EST


alloc_pid() loads pid_cachep, level and pid_max prior to taking the
lock.

It dirties idr and pid_allocated with the lock.

Some of these fields share the cacheline as is, split them up.

No change in the size of the struct.

Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx>
---

this is independent of other patches

i got an inconsistent win in terms of throughput rate, but relative
contention between pidmap lock and the rest went down

include/linux/pid_namespace.h | 14 +++++++-------
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/pid_namespace.h b/include/linux/pid_namespace.h
index 0e7ae12c96d2..b20baaa7e62b 100644
--- a/include/linux/pid_namespace.h
+++ b/include/linux/pid_namespace.h
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ struct pid_namespace {
struct idr idr;
struct rcu_head rcu;
unsigned int pid_allocated;
+#ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL
+#if defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE)
+ int memfd_noexec_scope;
+#endif
+ struct ctl_table_set set;
+ struct ctl_table_header *sysctls;
+#endif
struct task_struct *child_reaper;
struct kmem_cache *pid_cachep;
unsigned int level;
@@ -40,13 +47,6 @@ struct pid_namespace {
int reboot; /* group exit code if this pidns was rebooted */
struct ns_common ns;
struct work_struct work;
-#ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL
- struct ctl_table_set set;
- struct ctl_table_header *sysctls;
-#if defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE)
- int memfd_noexec_scope;
-#endif
-#endif
} __randomize_layout;

extern struct pid_namespace init_pid_ns;
--
2.48.1