RE: [RFC] percpu: decrease pcpu_nr_slots by 1

[Peng Fan <peng.fan@nxp.com>]

Hi Dennis,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dennis@kernel.org [mailto:dennis@kernel.org]
> Sent: 2019年2月25日 23:24
> To: Peng Fan <peng.fan@nxp.com>
> Cc: tj@kernel.org; cl@linux.com; linux-mm@kvack.org;
> linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; van.freenix@gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [RFC] percpu: decrease pcpu_nr_slots by 1
> 
> On Sun, Feb 24, 2019 at 09:17:08AM +0000, Peng Fan wrote:
> > Entry pcpu_slot[pcpu_nr_slots - 2] is wasted with current code logic.
> > pcpu_nr_slots is calculated with `__pcpu_size_to_slot(size) + 2`.
> > Take pcpu_unit_size as 1024 for example, __pcpu_size_to_slot will
> > return max(11 - PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT + 2, 1), it is 8, so the
> > pcpu_nr_slots will be 10.
> >
> > The chunk with free_bytes 1024 will be linked into pcpu_slot[9].
> > However free_bytes in range [512,1024) will be linked into
> > pcpu_slot[7], because `fls(512) - PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT + 2` is 7.
> > So pcpu_slot[8] is has no chance to be used.
> >
> > According comments of PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT, 1~31 bytes share the
> same
> > slot and PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT is defined as 5. But actually 1~15 share
> > the same slot 1 if we not take PCPU_MIN_ALLOC_SIZE into consideration,
> > 16~31 share slot 2. Calculation as below:
> > highbit = fls(16) -> highbit = 5
> > max(5 - PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT + 2, 1) equals 2, not 1.
> >
> > This patch by decreasing pcpu_nr_slots to avoid waste one slot and let
> > [PCPU_MIN_ALLOC_SIZE, 31) really share the same slot.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Peng Fan <peng.fan@nxp.com>
> > ---
> >
> > V1:
> >  Not very sure about whether it is intended to leave the slot there.
> >
> >  mm/percpu.c | 4 ++--
> >  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/mm/percpu.c b/mm/percpu.c index
> > 8d9933db6162..12a9ba38f0b5 100644
> > --- a/mm/percpu.c
> > +++ b/mm/percpu.c
> > @@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ static bool pcpu_addr_in_chunk(struct pcpu_chunk
> > *chunk, void *addr)  static int __pcpu_size_to_slot(int size)  {
> >  	int highbit = fls(size);	/* size is in bytes */
> > -	return max(highbit - PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT + 2, 1);
> > +	return max(highbit - PCPU_SLOT_BASE_SHIFT + 1, 1);
> >  }
> 
> Honestly, it may be better to just have [1-16) [16-31) be separate. I'm working
> on a change to this area, so I may change what's going on here.
> 
> >
> >  static int pcpu_size_to_slot(int size) @@ -2145,7 +2145,7 @@ int
> > __init pcpu_setup_first_chunk(const struct pcpu_alloc_info *ai,
> >  	 * Allocate chunk slots.  The additional last slot is for
> >  	 * empty chunks.
> >  	 */
> > -	pcpu_nr_slots = __pcpu_size_to_slot(pcpu_unit_size) + 2;
> > +	pcpu_nr_slots = __pcpu_size_to_slot(pcpu_unit_size) + 1;
> >  	pcpu_slot = memblock_alloc(pcpu_nr_slots * sizeof(pcpu_slot[0]),
> >  				   SMP_CACHE_BYTES);
> >  	for (i = 0; i < pcpu_nr_slots; i++)
> > --
> > 2.16.4
> >
> 
> This is a tricky change. The nice thing about keeping the additional
> slot around is that it ensures a distinction between a completely empty
> chunk and a nearly empty chunk.

Are there any issues met before if not keeping the unused slot?
From reading the code and git history I could not find information.
I tried this code on aarch64 qemu and did not meet issues.

 It happens to be that the logic creates
> power of 2 chunks which ends up being an additional slot anyway. 


So,
> given that this logic is tricky and architecture dependent, 

Could you share more information about architecture dependent?

Thanks,
Peng.

I don't feel
> comfortable making this change as the risk greatly outweighs the
> benefit.
> 
> Thanks,
> Dennis