Re: [PATCH] sched/numa, mm: Skip page promotion if cpu pid is valid

["Huang, Ying" <ying.huang@linux.alibaba.com>]

Hi, Donet,

Donet Tom <donettom@linux.ibm.com> writes:

> On 3/26/26 3:59 PM, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
>> On 3/26/26 08:12, Donet Tom wrote:
>>> If memory tiering is disabled, cpupid of slow memory pages may
>>> contain a valid CPU and PID. If tiering is enabled at runtime,
>>> there is a chance that in should_numa_migrate_memory(), this
>>> valid CPU/PID is treated as a last access timestamp, leading
>>> to unnecessary promotion.
>> Is that measurable? Should we at least have a Fixes: ?
>>
>>> Prevent this by skipping promotion when cpupid is valid.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Donet Tom <donettom@linux.ibm.com>
>>> ---
>>>   kernel/sched/fair.c | 7 +++++++
>>>   1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
>>> index 4b43809a3fb1..f5830a5a94d5 100644
>>> --- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
>>> +++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
>>> @@ -2001,6 +2001,13 @@ bool should_numa_migrate_memory(struct task_struct *p, struct folio *folio,
>>>   		unsigned int latency, th, def_th;
>>>   		long nr = folio_nr_pages(folio);
>>>   
>> /*
>>   * When ...
>>
>>> +		/* When tiering is enabled at runtime, last_cpupid may
>>> +		 * hold a valid cpupid instead of an access timestamp.
>>> +		 * If so, skip page promotion.
>>> +		 */
>>> +		if (cpupid_valid(folio_last_cpupid(folio)))
>>> +			return false;
>>> +
>> IIUC, as timestamp we use jiffies_to_msecs(). So, soon after bootup,
>> we would no longer get false positives for cpupid_valid().
>> I suppose overflows are not a problem, correct?
>
> Thank you, David, for guiding me in the right direction.
>
> I initially thought that overflows would not occur, and therefore
> cpupid_valid() would not produce false positives. However,
> after looking into it further, it appears that overflow can
> happen when storing the access time.
>
> The last_cpupid field is used to store the last access time.
> From the code, it appears that 21 bits are used for this
> (#define LAST_CPUPID_SHIFT (LAST__PID_SHIFT + LAST__CPU_SHIFT)).
>
> With 21 bits, the maximum value that can be stored is

It can be less than 21 bits, if CONFIG_NR_CPUS is small.

	DEFINE(NR_CPUS_BITS, order_base_2(CONFIG_NR_CPUS));

> 2097151ms (35Hrs) . If the access time exceeds this
> range, it can overflow, which may lead to cpupid_valid()
> returning false positives.
>
> I think we need a reliable way to determine cpupid_valid() that
> does not produce false positives.

Yes.  IMHO, false positives is unavoidable.  So, the patch fixes a
temporal performance issue at the cost of a longstanding performance
issue.  Right?

---
Best Regards,
Huang, Ying

>
>>
>> So what we're saying is that folio_use_access_time()==true does not
>> imply that there is actually a valid time in there.
>>
>> In numa_migrate_check() we could still use the valid cpuid I guess and
>> make that code a bit clearer?
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/memory.c b/mm/memory.c
>> index 631205a384e1..ba68933a9e4a 100644
>> --- a/mm/memory.c
>> +++ b/mm/memory.c
>> @@ -6119,10 +6119,9 @@ int numa_migrate_check(struct folio *folio, struct vm_fault *vmf,
>>           * For memory tiering mode, cpupid of slow memory page is used
>>           * to record page access time.  So use default value.
>>           */
>> -       if (folio_use_access_time(folio))
>> +       *last_cpupid = folio_last_cpupid(folio);
>> +       if (!cpupid_valid(*last_cpupid))
>>                  *last_cpupid = (-1 & LAST_CPUPID_MASK);
>> -       else
>> -               *last_cpupid = folio_last_cpupid(folio);
>>            /* Record the current PID accessing VMA */
>>          vma_set_access_pid_bit(vma);
>>
>>
>> The change itself here looks reasonable to me.
>>
>> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
>>