[PATCH 0/4] io_uring: improve alloc_cache branch prediction
From: Caleb Sander Mateos
Date: Tue Nov 03 2026 - 16:11:04 EST
A call to io_uring_alloc_async_data() that provides a struct io_alloc_cache
currently has 2 unnecessary NULL checks in the fast path:
- Of the struct io_alloc_cache *, even though it points to a struct io_ring_ctx
field
- Of the void * entry popped from the cache, even though all cache entries are
non-NULL
The compiler also incorrectly assumes the success path in io_alloc_cache_get()
is the unlikely one because it's written as an early return.
Avoid the first NULL check by splitting io_uring_alloc_async_data()'s cache
logic to a separate function io_uring_alloc_cached_async_data() that uses the
cache unconditionally. Avoid the second by returning a separate success bool
from io_cache_alloc() instead of checking the NULL-ness of the returned entry.
Also mark io_alloc_cache_get() and io_alloc_cache_put()'s success paths as
likely so the compiler can avoid jumps in the fast path.
The final commit is a small code simplification in io_futex_wait() noticed while
touching the neighboring io_cache_alloc() call.
Caleb Sander Mateos (4):
io_uring: split io_uring_alloc_async_data()
io_uring/alloc_cache: mark cache success paths as likely
io_uring/alloc_cache: assume io_alloc_cache_get() doesn't return NULL
io_uring/futex: avoid ifd NULL check in io_futex_wait()
io_uring/alloc_cache.c | 2 +-
io_uring/alloc_cache.h | 25 ++++++++++++------------
io_uring/filetable.c | 3 +--
io_uring/futex.c | 13 +++++--------
io_uring/io_uring.h | 24 ++++++++++++++---------
io_uring/net.c | 8 ++++----
io_uring/poll.c | 13 ++++++++-----
io_uring/rsrc.c | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++---------------------
io_uring/rsrc.h | 3 ++-
io_uring/rw.c | 4 ++--
io_uring/timeout.c | 2 +-
io_uring/uring_cmd.c | 4 ++--
io_uring/waitid.c | 2 +-
13 files changed, 76 insertions(+), 70 deletions(-)
--
2.56.0