Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: Introduce IRQ stack

From: Jungseok Lee
Date: Sat Sep 19 2015 - 04:21:27 EST


On Sep 18, 2015, at 10:46 PM, James Morse wrote:
> Hi Jungseok Lee,

Hi James Morse,

> I gave this a go on a Juno board, while generating usb/network interrupts:
>
> Tested-by: James Morse <james.morse@xxxxxxx>

Thanks a lot!

> On 13/09/15 15:42, Jungseok Lee wrote:
>> Currently, kernel context and interrupts are handled using a single
>> kernel stack navigated by sp_el1. This forces many systems to use
>> 16KB stack, not 8KB one. Low memory platforms naturally suffer from
>> memory pressure accompanied by performance degradation.
>>
>> This patch addresses the issue as introducing a separate percpu IRQ
>> stack to handle both hard and soft interrupts with two ground rules:
>>
>> - Utilize sp_el0 in EL1 context, which is not used currently
>> - Do not complicate current_thread_info calculation
>>
>> It is a core concept to trace struct thread_info using sp_el0 instead
>> of sp_el1. This approach helps arm64 align with other architectures
>> regarding object_is_on_stack() without additional complexity.
>
> I think you are missing a 'mov <reg>, sp; msr sp_el0, <reg>' in
> kernel/sleep.S:cpu_resume():175. This code finds the saved stack pointer
> from 'sleep_save_sp', and is called when the cpu wakes up from suspend.

Make sense.

> It didn't show up in testing, because the wake-up is always under the idle
> task, which evidently doesn't call current_thread_info() after wake-up.

I've never seen any issues under suspend/resume scenario yet, but it is
logically reasonable to update sp_el0 in resume context.

>
>> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S
>> index 4306c93..c156540 100644
>> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S
>> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S
>> @@ -88,7 +88,7 @@
>>
>> .if \el == 0
>> mrs x21, sp_el0
>> - get_thread_info tsk // Ensure MDSCR_EL1.SS is clear,
>> + get_thread_info \el, tsk // Ensure MDSCR_EL1.SS is clear,
>> ldr x19, [tsk, #TI_FLAGS] // since we can unmask debug
>> disable_step_tsk x19, x20 // exceptions when scheduling.
>> .else
>> @@ -105,6 +105,8 @@
>> .if \el == 0
>> mvn x21, xzr
>> str x21, [sp, #S_SYSCALLNO]
>> + mov x25, sp
>> + msr sp_el0, x25
>> .endif
>>
>> /*
>> @@ -163,9 +165,45 @@ alternative_endif
>> eret // return to kernel
>> .endm
>>
>> - .macro get_thread_info, rd
>> + .macro get_thread_info, el, rd
>> + .if \el == 0
>
> Why does \el matter here?
> If \el==0, we interrupted an el0 thread, and set sp_el0 in kernel_entry()
> to the el1 stack.
> If \el==1, we interrupted an el1 thread, didn't overwrite its sp_el0, so
> sp_el0 & ~(THREAD_SIZE-1) will give us the struct thread_info of the
> interrupted task.
>
> So either way, sp_el0 is correct…

You're right.

For the next version, I've written this macro with a single line as directly
accessing thread_info via sp_el0.

>
>> mov \rd, sp
>> - and \rd, \rd, #~(THREAD_SIZE - 1) // top of stack
>> + .else
>> + mrs \rd, sp_el0
>> + .endif
>> + and \rd, \rd, #~(THREAD_SIZE - 1) // bottom of thread stack
>> + .endm
>> +
>> + .macro get_irq_stack
>> + adr_l x21, irq_stacks
>> + mrs x22, tpidr_el1
>> + add x21, x21, x22
>> + .endm
>> +
>> + .macro irq_stack_entry
>> + get_irq_stack
>> + ldr w23, [x21, #IRQ_COUNT]
>> + cbnz w23, 1f // check irq recursion
>> + mov x23, sp
>> + str x23, [x21, #IRQ_THREAD_SP]
>> + ldr x23, [x21, #IRQ_STACK]
>> + mov sp, x23
>> + mov x23, xzr
>> +1: add w23, w23, #1
>> + str w23, [x21, #IRQ_COUNT]
>
> A (largely untested) example for the 'compare the high-order bits' way of
> doing this:
>
> .macro irq_stack_entry
> get_irq_stack
> ldr x22, [x21, #IRQ_STACK]
> and x23, x22, #~(THREAD_SIZE -1)
> mov x24, sp
> and x24, x24, #~(THREAD_SIZE -1)
> cmp x23, x24 // irq_recursion?
> mov x24, sp
> csel x23, x24, x22, eq
> mov sp, x23
> .endm
>
> /* preserve x24 between irq_stack_entry/irq_stack_exit */
>
> .macro irq_stack_exit
> mov sp, x24
> .endm
>
> This would let you remove IRQ_COUNT and IRQ_THREAD_SP, and avoid the two
> stores and a conditional-branch in irq_stack_entry/irq_stack_exit.
>
> Thoughts?

Great idea. Thanks to this change, about 20 lines can be removed.
It works well on my board till now.

>
>> + .endm
>> +
>> + .macro irq_stack_exit
>> + get_irq_stack
>> + ldr w23, [x21, #IRQ_COUNT]
>> + sub w23, w23, #1
>> + cbnz w23, 1f // check irq recursion
>> + mov x23, sp
>> + str x23, [x21, #IRQ_STACK]
>> + ldr x23, [x21, #IRQ_THREAD_SP]
>> + mov sp, x23
>> + mov x23, xzr
>> +1: str w23, [x21, #IRQ_COUNT]
>> .endm
>>
>> /*
>> @@ -183,10 +221,11 @@ tsk .req x28 // current thread_info
>> * Interrupt handling.
>> */
>> .macro irq_handler
>> - adrp x1, handle_arch_irq
>> - ldr x1, [x1, #:lo12:handle_arch_irq]
>> + ldr_l x1, handle_arch_irq
>> mov x0, sp
>> + irq_stack_entry
>> blr x1
>> + irq_stack_exit
>> .endm
>>
>> .text
>> @@ -361,7 +400,7 @@ el1_irq:
>> irq_handler
>>
>> #ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT
>> - get_thread_info tsk
>> + get_thread_info 1, tsk
>> ldr w24, [tsk, #TI_PREEMPT] // get preempt count
>> cbnz w24, 1f // preempt count != 0
>> ldr x0, [tsk, #TI_FLAGS] // get flags
>> @@ -597,6 +636,7 @@ ENTRY(cpu_switch_to)
>> ldp x29, x9, [x8], #16
>> ldr lr, [x8]
>> mov sp, x9
>> + msr sp_el0, x9
>> ret
>> ENDPROC(cpu_switch_to)
>>
>> @@ -655,7 +695,7 @@ ENTRY(ret_from_fork)
>> cbz x19, 1f // not a kernel thread
>> mov x0, x20
>> blr x19
>> -1: get_thread_info tsk
>> +1: get_thread_info 1, tsk
>> b ret_to_user
>> ENDPROC(ret_from_fork)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
>> index a055be6..cb13290 100644
>> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
>> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
>> @@ -441,6 +441,8 @@ __mmap_switched:
>> b 1b
>> 2:
>> adr_l sp, initial_sp, x4
>> + mov x4, sp
>
> There should probably a comment explaining why sp_el0 is being set (for the
> changes outside entry.S). Something like:
>
> msr sp_el0, x4 // stash struct thread_info

Agreed. I will add comments on sp_el0 across some relevant changes.

Thanks for comments!

Best Regards
Jungseok Lee--
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