Re: [PATCH v4 11/11] KVM: selftests: Enable tunning of err_margin_us in arch timer test

Haibo Xu
2023-12-20T13:51:37Z

On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 5:00 PM Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> On 2023-12-20 06:50, Haibo Xu wrote:
> > On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 2:22 AM Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 09:31:20 +0000,
> >> Haibo Xu <haibo1.xu@intel.com> wrote:
> >> > > @@ -216,6 +221,9 @@ static bool parse_args(int argc, char *argv[])
> >> > case 'm':
> >> > test_args.migration_freq_ms = atoi_non_negative("Frequency", optarg);
> >> > break;
> >> > + case 'e':
> >> > + test_args.timer_err_margin_us = atoi_non_negative("Error Margin", optarg);
> >> > + break;
> >>
> >> So your error margin is always unsigned...
> >>
> >
> > The error margin was supposed to be a non-negative [0, INT_MAX].
> > (May be need to define a Max for the input, instead of INT_MAX)
> >
> >> > case 'o':
> >> > test_args.counter_offset = strtol(optarg, NULL, 0);
> >> > test_args.reserved = 0;
> >> > diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/include/timer_test.h b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/include/timer_test.h
> >> > index 968257b893a7..b1d405e7157d 100644
> >> > --- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/include/timer_test.h
> >> > +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/include/timer_test.h
> >> > @@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ struct test_args {
> >> > int nr_iter;
> >> > int timer_period_ms;
> >> > int migration_freq_ms;
> >> > + int timer_err_margin_us;
> >>
> >> ... except that you are storing it as a signed value. Some consistency
> >> wouldn't hurt, really, and would avoid issues when passing large
> >> values.
> >>
> >
> > Yes, it's more proper to use an unsigned int for the non-negative error
> > margin.
> > Storing as signed here is just to keep the type consistent with that
> > of timer_period_ms
> > since there will be '+' operation in other places.
> >
> > tools/testing/selftests/kvm/aarch64/arch_timer.c
> > /* Setup a timeout for the interrupt to arrive */
> > udelay(msecs_to_usecs(test_args.timer_period_ms) +
> > test_args.timer_err_margin_us);
>
> But that's exactly why using a signed quantity is wrong.
> What does it mean to have a huge *negative* margin?
>

Hi Marc,

I agree that negative values are meaningless for the margin.
If I understand correctly, the negative margin should be filtered by
assertion in atoi_non_negative().

Thanks,
Haibo

> I don't see how you can justify this.
>
> M.
> --
> Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny...