[tip: timers/core] hrtimer: Don't take cpu_base::lock in hrtimer_get_next_event() when hres_active
From: tip-bot2 for Usama Arif
Date: Tue Jul 07 2026 - 17:33:18 EST
The following commit has been merged into the timers/core branch of tip:
Commit-ID: c4415c993fc2c8bdf2cf0bfbcbb1ac0e0f7a9eaf
Gitweb: https://git.kernel.org/tip/c4415c993fc2c8bdf2cf0bfbcbb1ac0e0f7a9eaf
Author: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
AuthorDate: Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:38:00 -07:00
Committer: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxx>
CommitterDate: Tue, 07 Jul 2026 23:26:58 +02:00
hrtimer: Don't take cpu_base::lock in hrtimer_get_next_event() when hres_active
hrtimer_get_next_event() runs on every tick-stop decision via
get_next_timer_interrupt() -> cmp_next_hrtimer_event(). When high
resolution timers are active it must return KTIME_MAX -- the caller
documents and depends on this.
The function takes cpu_base->lock, checks hres_active, and returns
KTIME_MAX.
Taking the lock is not required because cpu_base->hres_active is only
written by the local CPU in hrtimer_switch_to_hres() from hard interrupt
context and in hrtimers_cpu_starting() during bring-up.
All callers of hrtimer_get_next_event() reach it from the tick-stop /
cpuidle paths with interrupts disabled on that CPU. No writer can therefore
race with the read, so an unlocked hres_active check is stable and the lock
can be skipped in this case.
On a 176-thread AMD EPYC 9D64 running a production workload, bucketing
callers of native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath(), the slowpath had 199 samples
in total, of which 54 are attributed to hrtimer_get_next_event(), i.e. this
accounts for ~27% of slowpath hits on this specific workload.
Move the hres_active check before the lock guard region to address this.
[ tglx: Massaged change log and comments ]
Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260707153800.542394-1-usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx
---
kernel/time/hrtimer.c | 18 +++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/time/hrtimer.c b/kernel/time/hrtimer.c
index 9c320ab..697816d 100644
--- a/kernel/time/hrtimer.c
+++ b/kernel/time/hrtimer.c
@@ -1786,13 +1786,21 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__hrtimer_get_remaining);
ktime_t hrtimer_get_next_event(void)
{
struct hrtimer_cpu_base *cpu_base = this_cpu_ptr(&hrtimer_bases);
- ktime_t expires = KTIME_MAX;
- guard(raw_spinlock_irqsave)(&cpu_base->lock);
- if (!hrtimer_hres_active(cpu_base))
- expires = __hrtimer_get_next_event(cpu_base, HRTIMER_ACTIVE_ALL);
+ /*
+ * When HRES is active cmp_next_hrtimer_event() expects KTIME_MAX.
+ *
+ * cpu_base->hres_active is written only by the local CPU in
+ * hrtimer_switch_to_hres() from hard interrupt context and in
+ * hrtimers_cpu_starting() during CPU bring-up, and all callers reach
+ * this with interrupts disabled on the same CPU, so an unlocked read is
+ * stable without holding the lock.
+ */
+ if (hrtimer_hres_active(cpu_base))
+ return KTIME_MAX;
- return expires;
+ guard(raw_spinlock_irqsave)(&cpu_base->lock);
+ return __hrtimer_get_next_event(cpu_base, HRTIMER_ACTIVE_ALL);
}
/**