Re: [LTP] [PATCH][real-time] sched_footbal atomic start

[Darren Hart <dvhltc@us.ibm.com>]

Subrata Modak wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-06-25 at 09:46 +0530, gowrishankar wrote: 
>> Darren Hart wrote:
>>> The current barrier implementation results in the lowest priority thread
>>> actually starting the game (they are the last to be scheduled to call
>>> pthread_barrier_wait).  This thread likely gets a priority boost as it 
>>> holds
>>> the hb->lock for the futex associated with the barrier.  This might lead 
>>> to it
>>> running ahead of the defense threads.
>>> In fact, any sort of barrier or cond var implementation (short of a pi 
>>> aware
>>> cond broadcast, which is not yet readily available) will result in a 
>>> thundering
>>> herd situation when the FUTEX_WAKE_ALL syscall is issued, which can 
>>> result in
>>> a short run of one or more offense threads while all the threads get to the
>>> RUNNABLE state.
>>>
>>> This patch removes the complex starting mechansims and replaces them with a
>>> simple atomic counter.  All player threads are started and once the
>>> players_ready count reaches the total player count, the referee starts 
>>> the game
>>> by setting the ball position to zero.
>>>
>>> Tested on two platforms (both x86_64, 4 and 8-way) for a combined total of
>>> 13,000 iterations with 0 failures.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Darren Hart <dvhltc@us.ibm.com>
>>>
> 
> Thanks Darren. Long time LTP say updates to RT tests. What happened to
> the RT-Graphics tests that probably were in the pipeline ?

Hrm.... well.... I can't recall what those might have been.  The only 
graphics testing we do is really just functional testing using existing 
tests like x11perf and specviewperf.  We haven't written anything 
specifically for -rt.  Do you have any more detail on what this might 
have been?

--
Darren

> 
> Regards--
> Subrata
> 
>> Acked-by: Gowrishankar <gowrishankar.m@in.ibm.com>
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Gowri
>>> Index: ltp/testcases/realtime/func/sched_football/sched_football.c
>>> ===================================================================
>>> --- ltp.orig/testcases/realtime/func/sched_football/sched_football.c    
>>> 2009-06-24 11:49:16.000000000 -0700
>>> +++ ltp/testcases/realtime/func/sched_football/sched_football.c    
>>> 2009-06-24 11:48:44.000000000 -0700
>>> @@ -47,9 +47,11 @@
>>>  *
>>>  * HISTORY
>>>  *     2006-03-16 Reduced verbosity, non binary failure reporting, 
>>> removal of
>>> - *     crazy_fans thread, added game_length argument by Darren Hart.
>>> - *      2007-08-01 Remove all thread cleanup in favor of simply 
>>> exiting.Various
>>> - *      bugfixes and cleanups. -- Josh Triplett
>>> + *                crazy_fans thread, added game_length argument by 
>>> Darren Hart.
>>> + *     2007-08-01 Remove all thread cleanup in favor of simply 
>>> exiting.Various
>>> + *                bugfixes and cleanups. -- Josh Triplett
>>> + *     2009-06-23 Simplified atomic startup mechanism, avoiding 
>>> thundering herd
>>> + *                scheduling at the beginning of the game. -- Darren Hart
>>>  *
>>>  *****************************************************************************/ 
>>>
>>>
>>> @@ -71,11 +73,9 @@
>>> /* Here's the position of the ball */
>>> volatile int the_ball;
>>>
>>> -/* pthread_barrier for synchronization */
>>> -pthread_barrier_t barrier;
>>> -
>>> static int players_per_team = 0;
>>> static int game_length = DEF_GAME_LENGTH;
>>> +static atomic_t players_ready;
>>>
>>> void usage(void)
>>> {
>>> @@ -110,8 +110,7 @@
>>> /* This is the defensive team. They're trying to block the offense */
>>> void *thread_defense(void* arg)
>>> {
>>> -    pthread_barrier_wait(&barrier);
>>> -
>>> +    atomic_inc(&players_ready);
>>>     /*keep the ball from being moved */
>>>     while (1) {
>>>         sched_yield(); /* let other defenders run */
>>> @@ -123,8 +122,7 @@
>>> /* This is the offensive team. They're trying to move the ball */
>>> void *thread_offense(void* arg)
>>> {
>>> -    pthread_barrier_wait(&barrier);
>>> -
>>> +    atomic_inc(&players_ready);
>>>     while (1) {
>>>         the_ball++; /* move the ball ahead one yard */
>>>         sched_yield(); /* let other offensive players run */
>>> @@ -141,9 +139,9 @@
>>>
>>>     gettimeofday(&start, NULL);
>>>     now = start;
>>> -    the_ball = 0;
>>>
>>> -    pthread_barrier_wait(&barrier);
>>> +    /* Start the game! */
>>> +    the_ball = 0;
>>>
>>>     /* Watch the game */
>>>     while ((now.tv_sec - start.tv_sec) < game_length) {
>>> @@ -169,10 +167,7 @@
>>>     if (players_per_team == 0)
>>>         players_per_team = sysconf(_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN);
>>>
>>> -    if ((i = pthread_barrier_init(&barrier, NULL, players_per_team*2 + 
>>> 1))) {
>>> -        printf("pthread_barrier_init failed: %s\n", strerror(i));
>>> -        exit(i);
>>> -    }
>>> +    atomic_set(0, &players_ready);
>>>
>>>     printf("Running with: players_per_team=%d game_length=%d\n",
>>>            players_per_team, game_length);
>>> @@ -181,13 +176,20 @@
>>>     param.sched_priority = sched_get_priority_min(SCHED_FIFO) + 80;
>>>     sched_setscheduler(0, SCHED_FIFO, &param);
>>>
>>> -    /* Start the offense */
>>> +    /*
>>> +     * Start the offense
>>> +     * They are lower priority than defense, so they must be started 
>>> first.
>>> +     */
>>>     priority = 15;
>>>     printf("Starting %d offense threads at priority %d\n",
>>>             players_per_team, priority);
>>>     for (i = 0; i < players_per_team; i++)
>>>         create_fifo_thread(thread_offense, NULL, priority);
>>>
>>> +    /* Wait for the offense threads to start */
>>> +    while (atomic_get(&players_ready) < players_per_team)
>>> +        usleep(100);
>>> +
>>>     /* Start the defense */
>>>     priority = 30;
>>>     printf("Starting %d defense threads at priority %d\n",
>>> @@ -195,6 +197,10 @@
>>>     for (i = 0; i < players_per_team; i++)
>>>         create_fifo_thread(thread_defense, NULL, priority);
>>>
>>> +    /* Wait for the defense threads to start */
>>> +    while (atomic_get(&players_ready) < players_per_team * 2)
>>> +        usleep(100);
>>> +
>>>     /* Ok, everyone is on the field, bring out the ref */
>>>     printf("Starting referee thread\n");
>>>     return referee(game_length);
> 


-- 
Darren Hart
IBM Linux Technology Center
Real-Time Linux Team

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