Re: [PATCH v2] lib/smp_processor_id: Don't use cpumask_equal()

From: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior
Date: Fri Oct 04 2019 - 05:20:53 EST


On 2019-10-03 16:36:08 [-0400], Waiman Long wrote:
> The check_preemption_disabled() function uses cpumask_equal() to see
> if the task is bounded to the current CPU only. cpumask_equal() calls
> memcmp() to do the comparison. As x86 doesn't have __HAVE_ARCH_MEMCMP,
> the slow memcmp() function in lib/string.c is used.
>
> On a RT kernel that call check_preemption_disabled() very frequently,
> below is the perf-record output of a certain microbenchmark:
>
> 42.75% 2.45% testpmd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] check_preemption_disabled
> 40.01% 39.97% testpmd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] memcmp
>
> We should avoid calling memcmp() in performance critical path. So the
> cpumask_equal() call is now replaced with an equivalent simpler check.

using a simple integer comparison is still more efficient than what
__HAVE_ARCH_MEMCMP can offer.

> Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Sebastian