Re: [PATCH] sched: Optimize pick_next_task for idle_sched_class too

From: Steven Rostedt
Date: Fri Jan 20 2017 - 11:15:15 EST


On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 18:44:08 +0100
Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
- if (likely(prev->sched_class == class &&
> > + if (likely((prev->sched_class == class ||
> > + prev->sched_class == idle_class) &&
> > rq->nr_running == rq->cfs.h_nr_running)) {
>
> OK, so I hate this patch because it makes the condition more complex,
> and while staring at what it does for code generation I couldn't for the
> life of me figure out why we care about prev->sched_class to begin with.

I was thinking it would save on checking the rq at all, but rq is used
by pick_next_task_*() anyway, so I doubt it's much savings.

>
> (we used to, but the current code not so much)
>
> So I simply removed that entire clause, like below, and lo and behold,
> the system booted...

I thought about doing this too, but decided against it because I was
thinking that since class (and now idle_class) are constants, it would
help the non cfs case. Checking prev->sched_class against a constant I
thought would be quick. But yeah, I doubt it matters much in the grand
scale of things.


>
> Could you give it a spin to see if anything comes apart?

Yeah this works. You can add:

Reported-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks,

-- Steve

>
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
> index 49ce1cb..51ca21e 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/core.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
> @@ -3321,15 +3321,14 @@ static inline void schedule_debug(struct task_struct *prev)
> static inline struct task_struct *
> pick_next_task(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *prev, struct rq_flags *rf)
> {
> - const struct sched_class *class = &fair_sched_class;
> + const struct sched_class *class;
> struct task_struct *p;
>
> /*
> * Optimization: we know that if all tasks are in
> * the fair class we can call that function directly:
> */
> - if (likely(prev->sched_class == class &&
> - rq->nr_running == rq->cfs.h_nr_running)) {
> + if (likely(rq->nr_running == rq->cfs.h_nr_running)) {
> p = fair_sched_class.pick_next_task(rq, prev, rf);
> if (unlikely(p == RETRY_TASK))
> goto again;