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    Subject[PATCH 14/14] sched: add sched_dl documentation.
    Date
    From: Dario Faggioli <raistlin@linux.it>

    Add in Documentation/scheduler/ some hints about the design
    choices, the usage and the future possible developments of the
    sched_dl scheduling class and of the SCHED_DEADLINE policy.

    Signed-off-by: Dario Faggioli <raistlin@linux.it>
    Signed-off-by: Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@gmail.com>
    ---
    Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt | 196 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    kernel/sched/deadline.c | 3 +-
    2 files changed, 198 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
    create mode 100644 Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt

    diff --git a/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt
    new file mode 100644
    index 0000000..4d1ed52
    --- /dev/null
    +++ b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt
    @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@
    + Deadline Task Scheduling
    + ------------------------
    +
    +CONTENTS
    +========
    +
    +0. WARNING
    +1. Overview
    +2. Task scheduling
    +2. The Interface
    +3. Bandwidth management
    + 3.1 System-wide settings
    + 3.2 Task interface
    + 3.4 Default behavior
    +4. Tasks CPU affinity
    + 4.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
    +5. Future plans
    +
    +
    +0. WARNING
    +==========
    +
    + Fiddling with these settings can result in an unpredictable or even unstable
    + system behavior. As for -rt (group) scheduling, it is assumed that root users
    + know what they're doing.
    +
    +
    +1. Overview
    +===========
    +
    + The SCHED_DEADLINE policy contained inside the sched_dl scheduling class is
    + basically an implementation of the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduling
    + algorithm, augmented with a mechanism (called Constant Bandwidth Server, CBS)
    + that makes it possible to isolate the behavior of tasks between each other.
    +
    +
    +2. Task scheduling
    +==================
    +
    + The typical -deadline task is composed of a computation phase (instance)
    + which is activated on a periodic or sporadic fashion. The expected (maximum)
    + duration of such computation is called the task's runtime; the time interval
    + by which each instance needs to be completed is called the task's relative
    + deadline. The task's absolute deadline is dynamically calculated as the
    + time instant a task (or, more properly) activates plus the relative
    + deadline.
    +
    + The EDF[1] algorithm selects the task with the smallest absolute deadline as
    + the one to be executed first, while the CBS[2,3] ensures that each task runs
    + for at most its runtime every period, avoiding any interference between
    + different tasks (bandwidth isolation).
    + Thanks to this feature, also tasks that do not strictly comply with the
    + computational model described above can effectively use the new policy.
    + IOW, there are no limitations on what kind of task can exploit this new
    + scheduling discipline, even if it must be said that it is particularly
    + suited for periodic or sporadic tasks that need guarantees on their
    + timing behavior, e.g., multimedia, streaming, control applications, etc.
    +
    + References:
    + 1 - C. L. Liu and J. W. Layland. Scheduling algorithms for multiprogram-
    + ming in a hard-real-time environment. Journal of the Association for
    + Computing Machinery, 20(1), 1973.
    + 2 - L. Abeni , G. Buttazzo. Integrating Multimedia Applications in Hard
    + Real-Time Systems. Proceedings of the 19th IEEE Real-time Systems
    + Symposium, 1998. http://retis.sssup.it/~giorgio/paps/1998/rtss98-cbs.pdf
    + 3 - L. Abeni. Server Mechanisms for Multimedia Applications. ReTiS Lab
    + Technical Report. http://xoomer.virgilio.it/lucabe72/pubs/tr-98-01.ps
    +
    +3. Bandwidth management
    +=======================
    +
    + In order for the -deadline scheduling to be effective and useful, it is
    + important to have some method to keep the allocation of the available CPU
    + bandwidth to the tasks under control.
    + This is usually called "admission control" and if it is not performed at all,
    + no guarantee can be given on the actual scheduling of the -deadline tasks.
    +
    + Since when RT-throttling has been introduced each task group has a bandwidth
    + associated, calculated as a certain amount of runtime over a period.
    + Moreover, to make it possible to manipulate such bandwidth, readable/writable
    + controls have been added to both procfs (for system wide settings) and cgroupfs
    + (for per-group settings).
    + Therefore, the same interface is being used for controlling the bandwidth
    + distrubution to -deadline tasks and task groups, i.e., new controls but with
    + similar names, equivalent meaning and with the same usage paradigm are added.
    +
    + However, more discussion is needed in order to figure out how we want to manage
    + SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth at the task group level. Therefore, SCHED_DEADLINE
    + uses (for now) a less sophisticated, but actually very sensible, mechanism to
    + ensure that a certain utilization cap is not overcome per each root_domain.
    +
    + Another main difference between deadline bandwidth management and RT-throttling
    + is that -deadline tasks have bandwidth on their own (while -rt ones don't!),
    + and thus we don't need an higher level throttling mechanism to enforce the
    + desired bandwidth.
    +
    +3.1 System wide settings
    +------------------------
    +
    + The system wide settings are configured under the /proc virtual file system.
    +
    + The control knob that is added to the /proc virtual file system is
    + /proc/sys/kernel/sched_dl_runtime_us. It accepts (if written) and provides (if
    + read) the new runtime for each CPU in each root_domain. The period control knob
    + is instead shared with -rt settings (/proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us).
    +
    + The CPU bandwidth available to -deadline tasks is actually a sub-quota of
    + the -rt bandwidth. By default 95% of system bandwidth is allocate to -rt tasks;
    + among this, a 40% quota is reserved for -dl tasks. To have the actual quota a
    + simple multiplication is needed: .95 * .40 = .38 (38% of system bandwidth for
    + deadline tasks).
    +
    + This means that, for a root_domain comprising M CPUs, -deadline tasks
    + can be created until the sum of their bandwidths stay below:
    +
    + M * (sched_dl_runtime_us * rt_bw)
    +
    + It is also possible to disable this bandwidth management logic, and
    + be thus free of oversubscribing the system up to any arbitrary level.
    + This is done by writing -1 in /proc/sys/kernel/sched_dl_runtime_us or
    + in /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us.
    +
    +
    +3.2 Task interface
    +------------------
    +
    + Specifying a periodic/sporadic task that executes for a given amount of
    + runtime at each instance, and that is scheduled according to the urgency of
    + its own timing constraints needs, in general, a way of declaring:
    + - a (maximum/typical) instance execution time,
    + - a minimum interval between consecutive instances,
    + - a time constraint by which each instance must be completed.
    +
    + Therefore:
    + * a new struct sched_param2, containing all the necessary fields is
    + provided;
    + * the new scheduling related syscalls that manipulate it, i.e.,
    + sched_setscheduler2(), sched_setparam2() and sched_getparam2()
    + are implemented.
    +
    +
    +3.3 Default behavior
    +---------------------
    +
    +The default value for SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth is to have dl_runtime equal to
    +40000. Being rt_period equal to 1000000, by default, it means that -deadline
    +tasks can use at most 40%, multiplied by the number of CPUs that compose the
    +root_domain, for each root_domain.
    +
    +A -deadline task cannot fork.
    +
    +4. Tasks CPU affinity
    +=====================
    +
    +-deadline tasks cannot have an affinity mask smaller that the entire
    +root_domain they are created on. However, affinities can be specified
    +through the cpuset facility (Documentation/cgroups/cpusets.txt).
    +
    +4.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
    +------------------------------------
    +
    +An example of a simple configuration (pin a -deadline task to CPU0)
    +follows (rt-app is used to create a -deadline task).
    +
    +mkdir /dev/cpuset
    +mount -t cgroup -o cpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
    +cd /dev/cpuset
    +mkdir cpu0
    +echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.cpus
    +echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.mems
    +echo 1 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive
    +echo 0 > cpuset.sched_load_balance
    +echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.cpu_exclusive
    +echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.mem_exclusive
    +echo $$ > cpu0/tasks
    +rt-app -t 100000:10000:d:0 -D5 (it is now actually superfluous to specify
    +task affinity)
    +
    +5. Future plans
    +===============
    +
    +Still missing:
    +
    + - refinements to deadline inheritance, especially regarding the possibility
    + of retaining bandwidth isolation among non-interacting tasks. This is
    + being studied from both theoretical and practical point of views, and
    + hopefully we should be able to produce some demonstrative code soon;
    + - (c)group based bandwidth management, and maybe scheduling;
    + - access control for non-root users (and related security concerns to
    + address), which is the best way to allow unprivileged use of the mechanisms
    + and how to prevent non-root users "cheat" the system?
    +
    +As already discussed, we are planning also to merge this work with the EDF
    +throttling patches [https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/2/23/239] but we still are in
    +the preliminary phases of the merge and we really seek feedback that would
    +help us decide on the direction it should take.
    diff --git a/kernel/sched/deadline.c b/kernel/sched/deadline.c
    index 1499381..00b550b 100644
    --- a/kernel/sched/deadline.c
    +++ b/kernel/sched/deadline.c
    @@ -348,7 +348,8 @@ static void replenish_dl_entity(struct sched_dl_entity *dl_se,
    * disrupting the schedulability of the system. Otherwise, we should
    * refill the runtime and set the deadline a period in the future,
    * because keeping the current (absolute) deadline of the task would
    - * result in breaking guarantees promised to other tasks.
    + * result in breaking guarantees promised to other tasks (refer to
    + * Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt for more informations).
    *
    * This function returns true if:
    *
    --
    1.7.9.5


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