Re: [PATCHv2 1/1] locking/qspinlock/x86: Avoid test-and-set when PV_DEDICATED is set

From: Eduardo Valentin
Date: Thu Nov 02 2017 - 14:09:22 EST


On Thu, Nov 02, 2017 at 06:56:46PM +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 02/11/2017 18:45, Eduardo Valentin wrote:
> > Currently, the existing qspinlock implementation will fallback to
> > test-and-set if the hypervisor has not set the PV_UNHALT flag.
> >
> > This patch gives the opportunity to guest kernels to select
> > between test-and-set and the regular queueu fair lock implementation
> > based on the PV_DEDICATED KVM feature flag. When the PV_DEDICATED
> > flag is not set, the code will still fall back to test-and-set,
> > but when the PV_DEDICATED flag is set, the code will use
> > the regular queue spinlock implementation.
>
> Have you seen Waiman's series that lets you specify this on the guest
> command line instead? Would this be acceptable for your use case?
>

No, can you please share a link to it? is it already merged to tip/master?

> (In other words, is there a difference for you between making the host
> vs. guest administrator toggle the feature? "@amazon.com" means you are
> the host admin, how would you use it?)
>

The way I think of this is this is a flag set by host side so the guest adapts accordingly.

If the admin in guest side wants to ignore what the host is flagging, that is a different story.

> Thanks,
>
> Paolo
>
> > Cc: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: "Radim KrÄmÃÅ" <rkrcmar@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: x86@xxxxxxxxxx
> > Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: kvm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Cc: linux-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Cc: Jan H. Schoenherr <jschoenh@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Anthony Liguori <aliguori@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Suggested-by: Matt Wilson <msw@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Eduardo Valentin <eduval@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > V2:
> > - rebase on top of tip/master
> >
> > Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt | 6 ++++++
> > arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h | 4 ++++
> > arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm_para.h | 1 +
> > 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt
> > index 3c65feb..117066a 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt
> > @@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ KVM_FEATURE_PV_UNHALT || 7 || guest checks this feature bit
> > || || before enabling paravirtualized
> > || || spinlock support.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > +KVM_FEATURE_PV_DEDICATED || 8 || guest checks this feature bit
> > + || || to determine if they run on
> > + || || dedicated vCPUs, allowing opti-
> > + || || mizations such as usage of
> > + || || qspinlocks.
> > +------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE_STABLE_BIT || 24 || host will warn if no guest-side
> > || || per-cpu warps are expected in
> > || || kvmclock.
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> > index 308dfd0..3751898 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> > +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> > @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
> > #define _ASM_X86_QSPINLOCK_H
> >
> > #include <linux/jump_label.h>
> > +#include <linux/kvm_para.h>
> > +
> > #include <asm/cpufeature.h>
> > #include <asm-generic/qspinlock_types.h>
> > #include <asm/paravirt.h>
> > @@ -57,6 +59,8 @@ static inline bool virt_spin_lock(struct qspinlock *lock)
> > if (!static_branch_likely(&virt_spin_lock_key))
> > return false;
> >
> > + if (kvm_para_has_feature(KVM_FEATURE_PV_DEDICATED))
> > + return false;
> > /*
> > * On hypervisors without PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS support we fall
> > * back to a Test-and-Set spinlock, because fair locks have
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm_para.h b/arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm_para.h
> > index a965e5b0..d151300 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm_para.h
> > +++ b/arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/kvm_para.h
> > @@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
> > #define KVM_FEATURE_STEAL_TIME 5
> > #define KVM_FEATURE_PV_EOI 6
> > #define KVM_FEATURE_PV_UNHALT 7
> > +#define KVM_FEATURE_PV_DEDICATED 8
> >
> > /* The last 8 bits are used to indicate how to interpret the flags field
> > * in pvclock structure. If no bits are set, all flags are ignored.
> >
>
>

--
All the best,
Eduardo Valentin