Re: [net-next RFC] pktgen: don't wait for the device who doesn't free skb immediately after sent

[Jason Wang]

On Wednesday, November 28, 2012 08:53:05 AM Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:48:52 +0800
> 
> Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On 11/28/2012 12:49 AM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > > On Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:45:13 +0800
> > > 
> > > Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >> On 11/27/2012 01:37 AM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > >>> On Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:56:52 +0800
> > >>> 
> > >>> Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >>>> Some deivces do not free the old tx skbs immediately after it has
> > >>>> been sent
> > >>>> (usually in tx interrupt). One such example is virtio-net which
> > >>>> optimizes for virt and only free the possible old tx skbs during the
> > >>>> next packet sending. This would lead the pktgen to wait forever in
> > >>>> the refcount of the skb if no other pakcet will be sent afterwards.
> > >>>> 
> > >>>> Solving this issue by introducing a new flag IFF_TX_SKB_FREE_DELAY
> > >>>> which could notify the pktgen that the device does not free skb
> > >>>> immediately after it has been sent and let it not to wait for the
> > >>>> refcount to be one.
> > >>>> 
> > >>>> Signed-off-by: Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> 
> > >>> Another alternative would be using skb_orphan() and skb->destructor.
> > >>> There are other cases where skb's are not freed right away.
> > >>> --
> > >>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in
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> > >> 
> > >> Hi Stephen:
> > >> 
> > >> Do you mean registering a skb->destructor for pktgen then set and check
> > >> bits in skb->tx_flag?
> > > 
> > > Yes. Register a destructor that does something like update a counter
> > > (number of packets pending), then just spin while number of packets
> > > pending is over threshold.
> > > --
> > 
> > Not sure this is the best method, since pktgen was used to test the tx
> > process of the device driver and NIC. If we use skb_orhpan(), we would
> > miss the test of tx completion part.
> 
> There are other places that delay freeing and your solution would mean
> finding and fixing all those. Code that does that already has to use
> skb_orphan() to work, and I was looking for a way that could use that.
> Introducing another flag value seems like a long term burden.
> 

Get the point, will draft another version.
> Alternatively, virtio could do cleanup more aggressively. Maybe in response
> to ring getting half full, or add a cleanup timer or something to avoid the
> problem.

May worth to try. Another method is that virtio has a feature to notify guest 
when tx ring is empty, we could free the old tx skbs there. But it may brings 
extra overhead. If we could let virtio_net free the old tx skb timely, it 
would be easier to bring BQL support to virtio_net also.

Thanks
> 
> 
> 
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