Re: [PATCH] sched/stats: TASK_IDLE task bypass the block_starts time

From: zoucao
Date: Mon Jun 23 2025 - 02:35:09 EST



On 6/20/25 16:55, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 11:14:50AM +0800, Olice Zou wrote:
For TASK_IDLE task, we not should record the block_starts, it is
not real TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE task.
Why, I mean it is still blocked, right?
Thank you for your reply.

I find this problem when  running test case for intense lock contention, it has ​​contention among thousands of rwsem/mutex locks​,

them are real blocked task, but when idle machine, it also  has so much of blocked  kworker thread to be found, but the machine is idle.

the TASK_IDLE not a blocked task, it more like sleeping task as follow:


int kernel/workqueue.c

2690 static int worker_thread(void *__worker)
2691 {

   ...................

2758 sleep:

2759     /*
2760      * pool->lock is held and there's no work to process and no need to
2761      * manage, sleep.  Workers are woken up only while holding
2762      * pool->lock or from local cpu, so setting the current state
2763      * before releasing pool->lock is enough to prevent losing any
2764      * event.
2765      */
2766     worker_enter_idle(worker);
2767     __set_current_state(TASK_IDLE);    ---> this set task->__stat  to TASK_IDLE,  it will cause the blocked measure, but it more like sleep task.
2768     raw_spin_unlock_irq(&pool->lock);
2769     schedule();
2770     goto woke_up;
2771 }


this  trace of sched:sched_stat_blocked is a good point to ​​measure the duration of lock contention​, it provide the blocked delta time.

after this patch,  it is beautiful to observe the lock competition in a easy way.


"

#!/bin/bpftrace
#include<linux/sched.h>

tracepoint:sched:sched_stat_blocked
{
    if (args->delay > 1000000) {
        @sa[args->pid] = 1;
    }
}

kprobe:finish_task_switch
{
    $task = (struct task_struct *) arg0;
    if (@sa[tid] ) {
        print(kstack());
        delete(@sa[tid]);
    }
}
"

catch the lock bocked delta task as follow:

dynamic_offline 8684678

        finish_task_switch+1
        schedule+108
        schedule_timeout+567
        wait_for_completion+149
        __wait_rcu_gp+316
        synchronize_rcu+237
        rcu_sync_enter+92
        percpu_down_write+41     --> this is real blocked task for percpu_rwsem wait.
        cgroup_procs_write_start+111
        __cgroup1_procs_write.constprop.0+91
        cgroup1_procs_write+23
        cgroup_file_write+137
        kernfs_fop_write_iter+304
        vfs_write+618
        ksys_write+107
        __x64_sys_write+30
        x64_sys_call+5679
        do_syscall_64+55
        entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+12


It is also useful the iowait task except TASK_IDLE.


Or put the task_idle task into  the sleep  of sched_statistics to measure?

It is easy to find this problem in a idle machine as followe:

bpftrace -e 'tracepoint:sched:sched_stat_blocked { \
if (args->delay > 1000000) \
{ \
printf("%s %d\n", args->comm, args->delay); \
print(kstack()); \
} \
}

rcu_preempt 3881764
__update_stats_enqueue_sleeper+604
__update_stats_enqueue_sleeper+604
enqueue_entity+1014
enqueue_task_fair+156
activate_task+109
ttwu_do_activate+111
try_to_wake_up+615
wake_up_process+25
process_timeout+22
call_timer_fn+44
run_timer_softirq+1100
handle_softirqs+178
irq_exit_rcu+113
sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+132
asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+31
pv_native_safe_halt+15
arch_cpu_idle+13
default_idle_call+48
do_idle+516
cpu_startup_entry+49
start_secondary+280
secondary_startup_64_no_verify+404
Not sure what I'm looking at there. What is the problem?

Sorry, i lost the setup as follow:

    echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_schedstat

we should enable the sched_schedstat sysctrl switch first

Signed-off-by: Olice Zou <olicezou@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/sched/fair.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index a85539df75a5..e473e3244dda 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -1285,7 +1285,7 @@ update_stats_dequeue_fair(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq, struct sched_entity *se, int fl
if (state & TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE)
__schedstat_set(tsk->stats.sleep_start,
rq_clock(rq_of(cfs_rq)));
- if (state & TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE)
+ if (state != TASK_IDLE && (state & TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE))
__schedstat_set(tsk->stats.block_start,
rq_clock(rq_of(cfs_rq)));
}
--
2.25.1