Re: [PATCH 1/2] sched: Skip class callbacks with SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS

From: Peter Zijlstra

Date: Thu Jul 30 2026 - 06:38:35 EST


On Thu, Jul 30, 2026 at 12:59:37PM +0530, K Prateek Nayak wrote:
> Hello Andrea,
>
> On 7/30/2026 11:20 AM, Andrea Righi wrote:
> > SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS suppresses scheduler parameter and class changes,
> > but __sched_setscheduler() can still set DEQUEUE_CLASS when the class
> > computed from the requested policy differs from the task's current
> > class.
> >
> > This causes the switching_from(), switched_from(), switching_to() and
> > switched_to() callbacks to run even though p->sched_class remains
> > unchanged.
> >
> > Set DEQUEUE_CLASS only when the sched class is allowed to change.
> >
> > Fixes: 637b0682821b ("sched: Fold sched_class::switch{ing,ed}_{to,from}() into the change pattern")
> > Signed-off-by: Andrea Righi <arighi@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > kernel/sched/syscalls.c | 3 ++-
> > 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> > index b215b0ead9a60..903b47f5d0b74 100644
> > --- a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> > +++ b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> > @@ -675,7 +675,8 @@ int __sched_setscheduler(struct task_struct *p,
> > prev_class = p->sched_class;
> > next_class = __setscheduler_class(policy, newprio);
> >
> > - if (prev_class != next_class)
> > + if (!(attr->sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS) &&
> > + prev_class != next_class)
> > queue_flags |= DEQUEUE_CLASS;
>
> It seems there also exists a SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_POLICY which should be used
> to retain the policy. By a quick look at the syscall path,
> SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS should just do an equivalent of:
>
> get_params(p, &attr, 0)
>
> and match the some properties of sched_attr with that of the task.
>
> The task is still free to switch classes if the attr->sched_policy
> differs given SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS and SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_POLICY are two
> distinct flags and there is a separate SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_ALL to combines
> them both.
>
> I'm having a sneaky suspicion that the bit in sched_change guard below
> should actually check for SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_ALL like:
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> index b215b0ead9a6..baf1fc59069e 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
> @@ -680,7 +680,7 @@ int __sched_setscheduler(struct task_struct *p,
>
> scoped_guard (sched_change, p, queue_flags) {
>
> - if (!(attr->sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS)) {
> + if ((attr->sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_ALL) != SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_ALL) {
> __setscheduler_params(p, attr);
> p->sched_class = next_class;
> p->prio = newprio;

Hmm, but if we have KEEP_PARAMS then params are loaded with the current
set and actually re-setting them doesn't matter. So perhaps we should
just remove that conditional entirely?

---
diff --git a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
index b215b0ead9a6..1893938c76db 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/syscalls.c
@@ -680,12 +680,10 @@ int __sched_setscheduler(struct task_struct *p,

scoped_guard (sched_change, p, queue_flags) {

- if (!(attr->sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS)) {
- __setscheduler_params(p, attr);
- p->sched_class = next_class;
- p->prio = newprio;
- __setscheduler_dl_pi(newprio, policy, p, scope);
- }
+ __setscheduler_params(p, attr);
+ p->sched_class = next_class;
+ p->prio = newprio;
+ __setscheduler_dl_pi(newprio, policy, p, scope);
__setscheduler_uclamp(p, attr);

if (scope->queued) {
@@ -979,8 +977,11 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE3(sched_setattr, pid_t, pid, struct sched_attr __user *, uattr,
if (!p)
return -ESRCH;

- if (attr.sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS)
+ if (attr.sched_flags & SCHED_FLAG_KEEP_PARAMS) {
+ if (attr.sched_policy != SETPARAM_POLICY && attr.sched_policy != p->policy)
+ return -EINVAL;
get_params(p, &attr, 0);
+ }

return sched_setattr(p, &attr);
}