Re: [2.6.14] Cpufreq_ondemand sysfs names change (was: Re: CPUFreq_ondemand: misnamed ignore_nice attribute)

[Alexander Clouter <alex@digriz.org.uk>]

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Hi All,

Blaisorblade <blaisorblade@yahoo.it> [20050927 18:51:36 +0200]:
>
> On Saturday 10 September 2005 16:01, Alexander Clouter wrote:
> > Hi,
> Summary for Andrew Morton:
> 
> ondemand's ignore_nice attribute has a reversed meaning, and fixing this 
> requires changing the API for the user playing with sysfs. Thus, it should be 
> fixed ASAP, i.e. 2.6.14.
> 
> echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice
> Then ondemand ignores nice tasks when calculating CPU load.
> echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice
> Then ondemand considers nice tasks when calculating CPU load.
> 
> It's the reverse of the expected behaviour, even Alexander Clouter got 
> confused on it when I first reported this bug.
> 
> So I suggest:
> *) to flip the flag's behaviour, as discussed with Alexander
> 
> *) to rename the flag to ignore_nice_load or ignore_nice_tasks, to avoid 
> burning the user too much. Very few people use it now, but let's help them.
> 
> *) Alexander had a piece of doc he wrote about all this and sent me, it'd be 
> nice to have this merged too.
> 
> Alexander (quoted near the end) said to have rolled the patches, but they're 
> lost somewhere, don't know if he forgot or they're in some staging tree 
> in-the-middle. I guess I could roll up the patches if needed, but this week 
> I'm really busy, so probably not. I've also forwarded the original docco 
> patch to Andrew Morton and LKML (which didn't receive them in first place).
> 
completely my fault, I rolled them at the weekend whilst on a train, lived in 
effectively a Farraday cage for the weekend (a rural part of England for 
those who are curious :) and forgot....DOH!

The patches are attached.  If everyone likes the look of them, either one of 
you guys can 'signed off by' or I can to the mailing list.

Cheers

Alex

> > Blaisorblade <blaisorblade@yahoo.it> [20050910 15:36:10 +0200]:
> > > On Saturday 10 September 2005 14:59, Alexander Clouter wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> [About the flag behaviour]
> > > > I'm all for this to be changed, its a feature that is ment to be for
> > > > Joe Public to be used, it would be silly of us to not make it easier;
> > > > it is confusing as it stands.
> 
> > > Ok - hope there's no so much people workarounding for the new behaviour,
> > > but they're smart enough to fix their scripts up. Just shout a bit on
> > > LKML to say this and we should be ok.
> 
> > My thinking too, its a relatively new feature and when I have looked around
> > very few userland tools even tinker with ondemand so either we do it now or
> > not at all...or rather we do it later and listen to everyone complain :)
> 
> > > > Flipping the behaviour of the flag gets my vote.  Do you want to roll
> > > > the patch and I fix up the documentation or do you want to do both, or
> > > > should do both?
> 
> > > I think it's better that you do that - I'd already so many patches spread
> > > in my trees that I'd lose this patch somewhere.
> 
> > Not a problem.  I'll roll them off right now.
> 
> > Cheers
> 
> -- 
> Inform me of my mistakes, so I can keep imitating Homer Simpson's "Doh!".
> Paolo Giarrusso, aka Blaisorblade (Skype ID "PaoloGiarrusso", ICQ 215621894)
> http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade
> 
> 
> 	
> 
> 	
> 		
> ___________________________________ 
> Yahoo! Mail: gratis 1GB per i messaggi e allegati da 10MB 
> http://mail.yahoo.it

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diff -u linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_conservative.c linux-2.6.13/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_conservative.c
--- linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_conservative.c	2005-09-23 15:24:46.605223250 +0100
+++ linux-2.6.13/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_conservative.c	2005-09-23 15:24:30.740231750 +0100
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 {
 	return	kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.idle +
 		kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.iowait +
-		( !dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice ? 
+		( dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice ? 
 		  kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.nice :
 		  0);
 }
@@ -515,7 +515,7 @@
 			def_sampling_rate = (latency / 1000) *
 					DEF_SAMPLING_RATE_LATENCY_MULTIPLIER;
 			dbs_tuners_ins.sampling_rate = def_sampling_rate;
-			dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice = 0;
+			dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice = 1;
 			dbs_tuners_ins.freq_step = 5;
 
 			dbs_timer_init();
diff -u linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_ondemand.c linux-2.6.13/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_ondemand.c
--- linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_ondemand.c	2005-09-23 15:24:46.609223500 +0100
+++ linux-2.6.13/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_ondemand.c	2005-09-23 15:24:08.846863500 +0100
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
 {
 	return	kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.idle +
 		kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.iowait +
-		( !dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice ? 
+		( dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice ? 
 		  kstat_cpu(cpu).cpustat.nice :
 		  0);
 }
@@ -424,7 +424,7 @@
 			def_sampling_rate = (latency / 1000) *
 					DEF_SAMPLING_RATE_LATENCY_MULTIPLIER;
 			dbs_tuners_ins.sampling_rate = def_sampling_rate;
-			dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice = 0;
+			dbs_tuners_ins.ignore_nice = 1;
 
 			dbs_timer_init();
 		}

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diff -r -u linux-2.6.13.orig/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt linux-2.6.13/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt
--- linux-2.6.13.orig/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt	2005-09-23 15:25:14.302954250 +0100
+++ linux-2.6.13/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt	2005-09-23 15:36:09.875925000 +0100
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 2.2  Powersave
 2.3  Userspace
 2.4  Ondemand
+2.5  Conservative
 
 3.   The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core
 
@@ -110,9 +111,64 @@
 
 The CPUfreq govenor "ondemand" sets the CPU depending on the
 current usage. To do this the CPU must have the capability to
-switch the frequency very fast.
-
+switch the frequency very quickly.  There are a number of sysfs file
+accessible parameters:
 
+sampling_rate: measured in uS (10^-6 seconds), this is how often you
+want the kernel to look at the CPU usage and to make decisions on
+what to do about the frequency.  Typically this is set to values of
+around '10000' or more.
+
+show_sampling_rate_(min|max): the minimum and maximum sampling rates
+available that you may set 'sampling_rate' to.
+
+up_threshold: defines what the average CPU usaged between the samplings
+of 'sampling_rate' needs to be for the kernel to make a decision on
+whether it should increase the frequency.  For example when it is set
+to its default value of '80' it means that between the checking
+intervals the CPU needs to be on average more than 80% in use to then
+decide that the CPU frequency needs to be increased.  
+
+sampling_down_factor: this parameter controls the rate that the CPU
+makes a decision on when to decrease the frequency.  When set to its
+default value of '5' it means that at 1/5 the sampling_rate the kernel
+makes a decision to lower the frequency.  Five "lower rate" decisions
+have to be made in a row before the CPU frequency is actually lower.
+If set to '1' then the frequency decreases as quickly as it increases,
+if set to '2' it decreases at half the rate of the increase.
+
+ignore_nice: this parameter takes a value of '0' or '1', when set to
+'0' then all processes are counted towards towards the 'cpu
+utilisation' value.   When set to '1' (its default) then processes that
+are run with a 'nice' value will not count (and thus be ignored) in
+the overal usage calculation.  This is useful if you are running a CPU
+intensive calculation on your laptop that you do not care how long it
+takes to complete as you can 'nice' it and prevent it from taking part
+in the deciding process of whether to increase your CPU frequency.
+
+
+2.5 Conservative
+----------------
+
+The CPUfreq governor "conservative", much like the "ondemand"
+governor, sets the CPU depending on the current usage.  It differs in
+behaviour in that it gracefully increases and decreases the CPU speed
+rather than jumping to max speed the moment there is any load on the
+CPU.  This behaviour more suitable in a battery powered environment.
+The governor is tweaked in the same manner as the "ondemand" governor
+through sysfs with the addition of:
+
+freq_step: this describes what percentage steps the cpu freq should be
+increased and decreased smoothly by.  By default the cpu frequency will
+increase in 5% chunks of your maximum cpu frequency.  You can change this
+value to anywhere between 0 and 100 where '0' will effectively lock your
+CPU at a speed regardless of its load whilst '100' will, in theory, make
+it behave identically to the "ondemand" governor.
+
+down_threshold: same as the 'up_threshold' found for the "ondemand"
+governor but for the opposite direction.  For example when set to its
+default value of '20' it means that if the CPU usage needs to be below
+20% between samples to have the frequency decreased.
 
 3. The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core
 =============================================

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