Re: [PATCH v4] sched_ext: Trigger ops.update_idle() from pick_task_idle()

[Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>]

Hello, Andrea.

On Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 01:15:39PM +0200, Andrea Righi wrote:
...
> For example, a BPF scheduler might use logic like the following to keep
> the CPU active under specific conditions:
> 
> void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(sched_update_idle, s32 cpu, bool idle)
> {
> 	if (!idle)
> 		return;
> 	if (condition)
> 		scx_bpf_kick_cpu(cpu, 0);
> }
> 
> A call to scx_bpf_kick_cpu() wakes up the CPU, so in theory,
> ops.update_idle() should be triggered again until the condition becomes
> false. However, this doesn't happen, and scx_bpf_kick_cpu() doesn't
> produce the expected effect.

I thought more about this scenario and I'm not sure anymore whether we want
to guarantee that scx_bpf_kick_cpu() is followed by update_idle(cpu, true).
Here are a couple considerations:

- As implemented, the transtions aren't balanced. ie. When the above
  happens, update_idle(cpu, true) will be generated multiple times without
  intervening update_idle(cpu, false). We can insert artificial false
  transtions but that's cumbersome and...

- For the purpose of determining whether a CPU is idle for e.g. task
  placement from ops.select_cpu(). The CPU *should* be considered idle in
  this polling state.

Overall, it feels a bit contrived to generate update_idle() events
consecutively for this. If a scheduler wants to poll in idle state, can't it
do something like the following?

- Trigger kick from update_idle(cpu, true) and remember that the CPU is in
  the polling state.

- Keep kicking from ops.dispatch() until polling state is cleared.

As what kick() guarnatees is at least one dispatch event after kicking, this
is guaranteed to be correct and the control flow, while a bit more
complicated, makes sense - it triggers dispatch on idle transition and keeps
dispatching in the idle state.

What do you think?

Thanks.

-- 
tejun