[PATCH v6 3/5] lazy tlb: shoot lazies, non-refcounting lazy tlb mm reference handling scheme

Nicholas Piggin
2023-01-18T08:00:37Z

On big systems, the mm refcount can become highly contented when doing
a lot of context switching with threaded applications (particularly
switching between the idle thread and an application thread).

Abandoning lazy tlb slows switching down quite a bit in the important
user->idle->user cases, so instead implement a non-refcounted scheme
that causes __mmdrop() to IPI all CPUs in the mm_cpumask and shoot down
any remaining lazy ones.

Shootdown IPIs cost could be an issue, but they have not been observed
to be a serious problem with this scheme, because short-lived processes
tend not to migrate CPUs much, therefore they don't get much chance to
leave lazy tlb mm references on remote CPUs. There are a lot of options
to reduce them if necessary.

Signed-off-by: Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@gmail.com>
---
arch/Kconfig | 15 ++++++++++++
kernel/fork.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig
index b07d36f08fea..f7da34e4bc62 100644
--- a/arch/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/Kconfig
@@ -481,6 +481,21 @@ config ARCH_WANT_IRQS_OFF_ACTIVATE_MM
# already).
config MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT
def_bool y
+ depends on !MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN
+
+# This option allows MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT=n. It ensures no CPUs are using an
+# mm as a lazy tlb beyond its last reference count, by shooting down these
+# users before the mm is deallocated. __mmdrop() first IPIs all CPUs that may
+# be using the mm as a lazy tlb, so that they may switch themselves to using
+# init_mm for their active mm. mm_cpumask(mm) is used to determine which CPUs
+# may be using mm as a lazy tlb mm.
+#
+# To implement this, an arch *must*:
+# - At the time of the final mmdrop of the mm, ensure mm_cpumask(mm) contains
+# at least all possible CPUs in which the mm is lazy.
+# - It must meet the requirements for MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT=n (see above).
+config MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN
+ bool

config ARCH_HAVE_NMI_SAFE_CMPXCHG
bool
diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 9f7fe3541897..263660e78c2a 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -780,6 +780,67 @@ static void check_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
#define allocate_mm() (kmem_cache_alloc(mm_cachep, GFP_KERNEL))
#define free_mm(mm) (kmem_cache_free(mm_cachep, (mm)))

+static void do_check_lazy_tlb(void *arg)
+{
+ struct mm_struct *mm = arg;
+
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(current->active_mm == mm);
+}
+
+static void do_shoot_lazy_tlb(void *arg)
+{
+ struct mm_struct *mm = arg;
+
+ if (current->active_mm == mm) {
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(current->mm);
+ current->active_mm = &init_mm;
+ switch_mm(mm, &init_mm, current);
+ }
+}
+
+static void cleanup_lazy_tlbs(struct mm_struct *mm)
+{
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN)) {
+ /*
+ * In this case, lazy tlb mms are refounted and would not reach
+ * __mmdrop until all CPUs have switched away and mmdrop()ed.
+ */
+ return;
+ }
+
+ /*
+ * Lazy TLB shootdown does not refcount "lazy tlb mm" usage, rather it
+ * requires lazy mm users to switch to another mm when the refcount
+ * drops to zero, before the mm is freed. This requires IPIs here to
+ * switch kernel threads to init_mm.
+ *
+ * archs that use IPIs to flush TLBs can piggy-back that lazy tlb mm
+ * switch with the final userspace teardown TLB flush which leaves the
+ * mm lazy on this CPU but no others, reducing the need for additional
+ * IPIs here. There are cases where a final IPI is still required here,
+ * such as the final mmdrop being performed on a different CPU than the
+ * one exiting, or kernel threads using the mm when userspace exits.
+ *
+ * IPI overheads have not found to be expensive, but they could be
+ * reduced in a number of possible ways, for example (roughly
+ * increasing order of complexity):
+ * - The last lazy reference created by exit_mm() could instead switch
+ * to init_mm, however it's probable this will run on the same CPU
+ * immediately afterwards, so this may not reduce IPIs much.
+ * - A batch of mms requiring IPIs could be gathered and freed at once.
+ * - CPUs store active_mm where it can be remotely checked without a
+ * lock, to filter out false-positives in the cpumask.
+ * - After mm_users or mm_count reaches zero, switching away from the
+ * mm could clear mm_cpumask to reduce some IPIs, perhaps together
+ * with some batching or delaying of the final IPIs.
+ * - A delayed freeing and RCU-like quiescing sequence based on mm
+ * switching to avoid IPIs completely.
+ */
+ on_each_cpu_mask(mm_cpumask(mm), do_shoot_lazy_tlb, (void *)mm, 1);
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DEBUG_VM))
+ on_each_cpu(do_check_lazy_tlb, (void *)mm, 1);
+}
+
/*
* Called when the last reference to the mm
* is dropped: either by a lazy thread or by
@@ -791,6 +852,10 @@ void __mmdrop(struct mm_struct *mm)

BUG_ON(mm == &init_mm);
WARN_ON_ONCE(mm == current->mm);
+
+ /* Ensure no CPUs are using this as their lazy tlb mm */
+ cleanup_lazy_tlbs(mm);
+
WARN_ON_ONCE(mm == current->active_mm);
mm_free_pgd(mm);
destroy_context(mm);
--
2.37.2