Re: [PATCH] sched: fix cpu utilization account error

From: Xie XiuQi
Date: Mon Jul 01 2013 - 07:27:38 EST


On 2013/7/1 15:36, Mike Galbraith wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-07-01 at 14:45 +0800, Xie XiuQi wrote:
>> We setting clock_skip_update = 1 based on the assumption that the
>> next call to update_rq_clock() will come nearly immediately
>> after being set. However, it is not always true especially on
>> non-preempt mode. In this case we may miss some clock update, which
>> would cause an error curr->sum_exec_runtime account.
>>
>> The test result show that test_kthread's exec_runtime has been
>> added to watchdog.
>>
>> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ P COMMAND
>> 28 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 100 0.0 0:05.39 5 watchdog/5
>> 7 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 95 0.0 0:05.83 0 watchdog/0
>> 12 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 94 0.0 0:05.79 1 watchdog/1
>> 16 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 92 0.0 0:05.74 2 watchdog/2
>> 20 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 91 0.0 0:05.71 3 watchdog/3
>> 24 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 82 0.0 0:05.42 4 watchdog/4
>> 32 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 79 0.0 0:05.35 6 watchdog/6
>> 5200 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 21 0.0 0:08.88 6 test_kthread/6
>> 5194 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 20 0.0 0:08.41 0 test_kthread/0
>> 5195 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 20 0.0 0:08.44 1 test_kthread/1
>> 5196 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 20 0.0 0:08.49 2 test_kthread/2
>> 5197 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 20 0.0 0:08.53 3 test_kthread/3
>> 5198 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 19 0.0 0:08.81 4 test_kthread/4
>> 5199 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 2 0.0 0:08.66 5 test_kthread/5
>>
>> "test_kthread/i" is a kernel thread which has a infinity loop and it calls
>> schedule() every 1s. It's main process as below:
>
> It'd be a shame to lose the cycle savings (we could use more) due to
> such horrible behavior. Where are you seeing this in real life?
>

Thank you for your comments, Mike.

This issue was reported by a driver related pcie in which a kthread send
huge amounts of data. In non-preempt mode, it would take a cpu for a long
time. But, in preempt mode, I haven't found this issue yet.

Here is the kthread main logic. Although it's not a good idea, but it does
exist:
while (!kthread_should_stop()) {
/* call schedule every 1 sec */
if (HZ <= jiffies - last) {
last = jiffies;
schedule();
}

/* get data and sent it */
get_msg();
send_msg();

if (kthread_should_stop())
break;
}

> That said, accounting funnies induced by skipped update are possible,
> which could trump the cycle savings I suppose, so maybe savings (sniff)
> should just go away?

Indeed, removing the skip_clock_update could resolve the issue, but I found
there is no this issue in preempt mode. However, if remove skip_clock_update
we'll get more precise time account.

So, what's your opinion, Mike.



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