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    SubjectRe: [RFC PATCH] introduce sys_membarrier(): process-wide memory barrier (v3a)
    * Paul E. McKenney (paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com) wrote:
    > On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 11:29:03PM -0500, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
    > > Here is an implementation of a new system call, sys_membarrier(), which
    > > executes a memory barrier on all threads of the current process.
    > >
    > > It aims at greatly simplifying and enhancing the current signal-based
    > > liburcu userspace RCU synchronize_rcu() implementation.
    > > (found at http://lttng.org/urcu)
    >
    > Given that this has the memory barrier both before and after the
    > assignment to ->mm, looks good to me from a memory-ordering viewpoint.
    > I must defer to others on the effect on context-switch overhead.

    More precisely, it's the assignment to cpu_vm_mask (clear bit/set bit)
    that needs to be surrounded by memory barriers here. This is what we use
    as cpu mask to which IPIs are sent. Only the current ->mm is accessed,
    so ->mm ordering is not the issue here.

    Thanks,

    Mathieu

    >
    > Thanx, Paul
    >
    > > Changelog since v1:
    > >
    > > - Only perform the IPI in CONFIG_SMP.
    > > - Only perform the IPI if the process has more than one thread.
    > > - Only send IPIs to CPUs involved with threads belonging to our process.
    > > - Adaptative IPI scheme (single vs many IPI with threshold).
    > > - Issue smp_mb() at the beginning and end of the system call.
    > >
    > > Changelog since v2:
    > > - simply send-to-many to the mm_cpumask. It contains the list of processors we
    > > have to IPI to (which use the mm), and this mask is updated atomically.
    > >
    > > Both the signal-based and the sys_membarrier userspace RCU schemes
    > > permit us to remove the memory barrier from the userspace RCU
    > > rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock() primitives, thus significantly
    > > accelerating them. These memory barriers are replaced by compiler
    > > barriers on the read-side, and all matching memory barriers on the
    > > write-side are turned into an invokation of a memory barrier on all
    > > active threads in the process. By letting the kernel perform this
    > > synchronization rather than dumbly sending a signal to every process
    > > threads (as we currently do), we diminish the number of unnecessary wake
    > > ups and only issue the memory barriers on active threads. Non-running
    > > threads do not need to execute such barrier anyway, because these are
    > > implied by the scheduler context switches.
    > >
    > > To explain the benefit of this scheme, let's introduce two example threads:
    > >
    > > Thread A (non-frequent, e.g. executing liburcu synchronize_rcu())
    > > Thread B (frequent, e.g. executing liburcu rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock())
    > >
    > > In a scheme where all smp_mb() in thread A synchronize_rcu() are
    > > ordering memory accesses with respect to smp_mb() present in
    > > rcu_read_lock/unlock(), we can change all smp_mb() from
    > > synchronize_rcu() into calls to sys_membarrier() and all smp_mb() from
    > > rcu_read_lock/unlock() into compiler barriers "barrier()".
    > >
    > > Before the change, we had, for each smp_mb() pairs:
    > >
    > > Thread A Thread B
    > > prev mem accesses prev mem accesses
    > > smp_mb() smp_mb()
    > > follow mem accesses follow mem accesses
    > >
    > > After the change, these pairs become:
    > >
    > > Thread A Thread B
    > > prev mem accesses prev mem accesses
    > > sys_membarrier() barrier()
    > > follow mem accesses follow mem accesses
    > >
    > > As we can see, there are two possible scenarios: either Thread B memory
    > > accesses do not happen concurrently with Thread A accesses (1), or they
    > > do (2).
    > >
    > > 1) Non-concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses:
    > >
    > > Thread A Thread B
    > > prev mem accesses
    > > sys_membarrier()
    > > follow mem accesses
    > > prev mem accesses
    > > barrier()
    > > follow mem accesses
    > >
    > > In this case, thread B accesses will be weakly ordered. This is OK,
    > > because at that point, thread A is not particularly interested in
    > > ordering them with respect to its own accesses.
    > >
    > > 2) Concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses
    > >
    > > Thread A Thread B
    > > prev mem accesses prev mem accesses
    > > sys_membarrier() barrier()
    > > follow mem accesses follow mem accesses
    > >
    > > In this case, thread B accesses, which are ensured to be in program
    > > order thanks to the compiler barrier, will be "upgraded" to full
    > > smp_mb() thanks to the IPIs executing memory barriers on each active
    > > system threads. Each non-running process threads are intrinsically
    > > serialized by the scheduler.
    > >
    > > For my Intel Xeon E5405 (new set of results, disabled kernel debugging)
    > >
    > > T=1: 0m18.921s
    > > T=2: 0m19.457s
    > > T=3: 0m21.619s
    > > T=4: 0m21.641s
    > > T=5: 0m23.426s
    > > T=6: 0m26.450s
    > > T=7: 0m27.731s
    > >
    > > The expected top pattern, when using 1 CPU for a thread doing sys_membarrier()
    > > in a loop and other threads busy-waiting in user-space on a variable shows that
    > > the thread doing sys_membarrier is doing mostly system calls, and other threads
    > > are mostly running in user-space. Side-note, in this test, it's important to
    > > check that individual threads are not always fully at 100% user-space time (they
    > > range between ~95% and 100%), because when some thread in the test is always at
    > > 100% on the same CPU, this means it does not get the IPI at all. (I actually
    > > found out about a bug in my own code while developing it with this test.)
    > >
    > > Cpu0 :100.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu1 : 99.7%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu2 : 99.3%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.7%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu3 :100.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu4 :100.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu5 : 96.0%us, 1.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 2.6%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu6 : 1.3%us, 98.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
    > > Cpu7 : 96.1%us, 3.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.3%si, 0.0%st
    > >
    > > Results in liburcu:
    > >
    > > Operations in 10s, 6 readers, 2 writers:
    > >
    > > (what we previously had)
    > > memory barriers in reader: 973494744 reads, 892368 writes
    > > signal-based scheme: 6289946025 reads, 1251 writes
    > >
    > > (what we have now, with dynamic sys_membarrier check)
    > > memory barriers in reader: 907693804 reads, 817793 writes
    > > sys_membarrier scheme: 4061976535 reads, 526807 writes
    > >
    > > So the dynamic sys_membarrier availability check adds some overhead to the
    > > read-side, but besides that, we can see that we are close to the read-side
    > > performance of the signal-based scheme and also close (5/8) to the performance
    > > of the memory-barrier write-side. We have a write-side speedup of 421:1 over the
    > > signal-based scheme by using the sys_membarrier system call. This allows a 4.5:1
    > > read-side speedup over the memory barrier scheme.
    > >
    > > The system call number is only assigned for x86_64 in this RFC patch.
    > >
    > > Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca>
    > > CC: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
    > > CC: mingo@elte.hu
    > > CC: laijs@cn.fujitsu.com
    > > CC: dipankar@in.ibm.com
    > > CC: akpm@linux-foundation.org
    > > CC: josh@joshtriplett.org
    > > CC: dvhltc@us.ibm.com
    > > CC: niv@us.ibm.com
    > > CC: tglx@linutronix.de
    > > CC: peterz@infradead.org
    > > CC: rostedt@goodmis.org
    > > CC: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
    > > CC: dhowells@redhat.com
    > > ---
    > > arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h | 2 +
    > > kernel/sched.c | 59 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
    > > 2 files changed, 60 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
    > >
    > > Index: linux-2.6-lttng/arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h
    > > ===================================================================
    > > --- linux-2.6-lttng.orig/arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h 2010-01-10 19:21:31.000000000 -0500
    > > +++ linux-2.6-lttng/arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h 2010-01-10 19:21:37.000000000 -0500
    > > @@ -661,6 +661,8 @@ __SYSCALL(__NR_pwritev, sys_pwritev)
    > > __SYSCALL(__NR_rt_tgsigqueueinfo, sys_rt_tgsigqueueinfo)
    > > #define __NR_perf_event_open 298
    > > __SYSCALL(__NR_perf_event_open, sys_perf_event_open)
    > > +#define __NR_membarrier 299
    > > +__SYSCALL(__NR_membarrier, sys_membarrier)
    > >
    > > #ifndef __NO_STUBS
    > > #define __ARCH_WANT_OLD_READDIR
    > > Index: linux-2.6-lttng/kernel/sched.c
    > > ===================================================================
    > > --- linux-2.6-lttng.orig/kernel/sched.c 2010-01-10 19:21:31.000000000 -0500
    > > +++ linux-2.6-lttng/kernel/sched.c 2010-01-10 22:22:40.000000000 -0500
    > > @@ -2861,12 +2861,26 @@ context_switch(struct rq *rq, struct tas
    > > */
    > > arch_start_context_switch(prev);
    > >
    > > + /*
    > > + * sys_membarrier IPI-mb scheme requires a memory barrier between
    > > + * user-space thread execution and update to mm_cpumask.
    > > + */
    > > + if (likely(oldmm) && likely(oldmm != mm))
    > > + smp_mb__before_clear_bit();
    > > +
    > > if (unlikely(!mm)) {
    > > next->active_mm = oldmm;
    > > atomic_inc(&oldmm->mm_count);
    > > enter_lazy_tlb(oldmm, next);
    > > - } else
    > > + } else {
    > > switch_mm(oldmm, mm, next);
    > > + /*
    > > + * sys_membarrier IPI-mb scheme requires a memory barrier
    > > + * between update to mm_cpumask and user-space thread execution.
    > > + */
    > > + if (likely(oldmm != mm))
    > > + smp_mb__after_clear_bit();
    > > + }
    > >
    > > if (unlikely(!prev->mm)) {
    > > prev->active_mm = NULL;
    > > @@ -10822,6 +10836,49 @@ struct cgroup_subsys cpuacct_subsys = {
    > > };
    > > #endif /* CONFIG_CGROUP_CPUACCT */
    > >
    > > +/*
    > > + * Execute a memory barrier on all active threads from the current process
    > > + * on SMP systems. Do not rely on implicit barriers in
    > > + * smp_call_function_many(), just in case they are ever relaxed in the future.
    > > + */
    > > +static void membarrier_ipi(void *unused)
    > > +{
    > > + smp_mb();
    > > +}
    > > +
    > > +/*
    > > + * sys_membarrier - issue memory barrier on current process running threads
    > > + *
    > > + * Execute a memory barrier on all running threads of the current process.
    > > + * Upon completion, the caller thread is ensured that all process threads
    > > + * have passed through a state where memory accesses match program order.
    > > + * (non-running threads are de facto in such a state)
    > > + */
    > > +SYSCALL_DEFINE0(membarrier)
    > > +{
    > > +#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
    > > + if (unlikely(thread_group_empty(current)))
    > > + return 0;
    > > + /*
    > > + * Memory barrier on the caller thread _before_ sending first
    > > + * IPI. Matches memory barriers around mm_cpumask modification in
    > > + * context_switch().
    > > + */
    > > + smp_mb();
    > > + preempt_disable();
    > > + smp_call_function_many(mm_cpumask(current->mm), membarrier_ipi,
    > > + NULL, 1);
    > > + preempt_enable();
    > > + /*
    > > + * Memory barrier on the caller thread _after_ we finished
    > > + * waiting for the last IPI. Matches memory barriers around mm_cpumask
    > > + * modification in context_switch().
    > > + */
    > > + smp_mb();
    > > +#endif /* #ifdef CONFIG_SMP */
    > > + return 0;
    > > +}
    > > +
    > > #ifndef CONFIG_SMP
    > >
    > > int rcu_expedited_torture_stats(char *page)
    > > --
    > > Mathieu Desnoyers
    > > OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68

    --
    Mathieu Desnoyers
    OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68


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