Re: [RFC PATCH 06/16] sched: Add core wide task selection and scheduling.

[Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org>]

On Fri, Jul 03, 2020 at 04:21:46PM -0400, Vineeth Remanan Pillai wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 1, 2020 at 7:28 PM Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org> wrote:
> >
> > From: "Joel Fernandes (Google)" <joel@joelfernandes.org>
> > Subject: [PATCH] sched: Fix CPU hotplug causing crashes in task selection logic
> >
> > The selection logic does not run correctly if the current CPU is not in the
> > cpu_smt_mask (which it is not because the CPU is offlined when the stopper
> > finishes running and needs to switch to idle).  There are also other issues
> > fixed by the patch I think such as: if some other sibling set core_pick to
> > something, however the selection logic on current cpu resets it before
> > selecting. In this case, we need to run the task selection logic again to
> > make sure it picks something if there is something to run. It might end up
> > picking the wrong task.
> >
> I am not sure if this can happen. If the other sibling sets core_pick, it
> will be under the core wide lock and it should set the core_sched_seq also
> before releasing the lock. So when this cpu tries, it would see the core_pick
> before resetting it. Is this the same case you were mentioning? Sorry if I
> misunderstood the case you mentioned..

If you have a case where you have 3 siblings all trying to enter the schedule
loop. Call them A, B and C.

A picks something for B in core_pick. Now C comes and resets B's core_pick
before running the mega-loop, hoping to select something for it shortly.
However, C then does an unconstrained pick and forgets to set B's pick to
something.

I don't know if this can really happen - but this is why I added the warning
in the end of the patch. I think we should make the code more robust and
handle these kind of cases.

> > Yet another issue was, if the stopper thread is an
> > unconstrained pick, then rq->core_pick is set. The next time task selection
> > logic runs when stopper needs to switch to idle, the current CPU is not in
> > the smt_mask. This causes the previous ->core_pick to be picked again which
> > happens to be the unconstrained task! so the stopper keeps getting selected
> > forever.
> >
> I did not clearly understand this. During an unconstrained pick, current
> cpu's core_pick is not set and tasks are not picked for siblings as well.
> If it is observed being set in the v6 code, I think it should be a bug.

Again, it is about making the code more robust. Why should not set
rq->core_pick when we pick something? As we discussed in the private
discussion - we should make the code robust and consistent. Correctness is
not enough, the code has to be robust and maintainable.

I think in our private discussion, you agreed with me that there is no harm
in setting core_pick in this case.

> > That and there are a few more safe guards and checks around checking/setting
> > rq->core_pick. To test it, I ran rcutorture and made it tag all torture
> > threads. Then ran it in hotplug mode (hotplugging every 200ms) and it hit the
> > issue. Now it runs for an hour or so without issue. (Torture testing debug
> > changes: https://bit.ly/38htfqK ).
> >
> > Various fixes were tried causing varying degrees of crashes.  Finally I found
> > that it is easiest to just add current CPU to the smt_mask's copy always.
> > This is so that task selection logic always runs on the current CPU which
> > called schedule().
> >
> > [...]
> >         cpu = cpu_of(rq);
> > -       smt_mask = cpu_smt_mask(cpu);
> > +       /* Make a copy of cpu_smt_mask as we should not set that. */
> > +       cpumask_copy(&select_mask, cpu_smt_mask(cpu));
> > +
> > +       /*
> > +        * Always make sure current CPU is added to smt_mask so that below
> > +        * selection logic runs on it.
> > +        */
> > +       cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, &select_mask);
> >
> I like this idea. Probably we can optimize it a bit. We get here with cpu
> not in smt_mask only during an offline and online(including the boot time
> online) phase. So we could probably wrap it in an "if (unlikely())". Also,
> during this time, it would be idle thread or some hotplug online thread that
> would be runnable and no other tasks should be runnable on this cpu. So, I
> think it makes sense to do an unconstrained pick rather than a costly sync
> of all siblings. Probably something like:
> 
> cpumask_copy(&select_mask, cpu_smt_mask(cpu));
> if (unlikely(cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, &select_mask))) {
>     cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, &select_mask);
>     need_sync = false;
> }

Nah, more lines of code for no good no reason, plus another branch right? I'd
like to leave my one liner alone than adding 4 more lines :-)

> By setting need_sync to false, we will do an unconstrained pick and will
> not sync with other siblings. I guess we need to reset need_sync after
> or in the following for_each_cpu loop, because the loop may set it.

I don't know if we want to add more conditions really and make it more
confusing. If anything, I believe we should simplify the existing code more TBH.

> >         /*
> >          * core->core_task_seq, core->core_pick_seq, rq->core_sched_seq
> > @@ -4351,7 +4358,7 @@ pick_next_task(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *prev, struct rq_flags *rf)
> 
> >                         if (i == cpu && !need_sync && !p->core_cookie) {
> >                                 next = p;
> > +                               rq_i->core_pick = next;
> > +                               rq_i->core_sched_seq = rq_i->core->core_pick_seq;
> >
> I think we would not need these here. core_pick needs to be set only
> for siblings if we are picking a task for them. For unconstrained pick,
> we pick only for ourselves. Also, core_sched_seq need not be synced here.
> We might already be synced with the existing core->core_pick_seq. Even
> if it is not synced, I don't think it will cause an issue in subsequent
> schedule events.

As discussed both privately and above, there is no harm and it is good to
keep the code consistent. I'd rather have any task picking set core_pick and
core_sched_seq to prevent confusion.

And if anything is resetting an existing ->core_pick of a sibling in the
selection loop, it better set it to something sane.

> >  done:
> > +       /*
> > +        * If we reset a sibling's core_pick, make sure that we picked a task
> > +        * for it, this is because we might have reset it though it was set to
> > +        * something by another selector. In this case we cannot leave it as
> > +        * NULL and should have found something for it.
> > +        */
> > +       for_each_cpu(i, &select_mask) {
> > +               WARN_ON_ONCE(!cpu_rq(i)->core_pick);
> > +       }
> > +
> I think this check will not be true always. For unconstrained pick, we
> do not pick tasks for siblings and hence do not set core_pick for them.
> So this WARN_ON will fire for unconstrained pick. Easily reproducible
> by creating an empty cgroup and tagging it. Then only unconstrained
> picks will happen and this WARN_ON fires. I guess this check after the
> done label does not hold and could be removed.

As discussed above, > 2 SMT case, we don't really know if the warning will
fire or not. I would rather keep the warning just in case for the future.

Thanks!

 - Joel