Re: [PATCH v6 00/29] context_tracking,x86: Defer some IPIs until a user->kernel transition

[Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>]

+Cc Phil Auld

Le Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 05:38:10PM +0200, Valentin Schneider a écrit :
> Patches
> =======
> 
> o Patches 1-2 are standalone objtool cleanups.

Would be nice to get these merged.

> o Patches 3-4 add an RCU testing feature.

I'm taking this one.

> 
> o Patches 5-6 add infrastructure for annotating static keys and static calls
>   that may be used in noinstr code (courtesy of Josh).
> o Patches 7-20 use said annotations on relevant keys / calls.
> o Patch 21 enforces proper usage of said annotations (courtesy of Josh).
> 
> o Patch 22 deals with detecting NOINSTR text in modules

Not sure how to route those. If we wait for each individual subsystem,
this may take a while.

> o Patches 23-24 deal with kernel text sync IPIs

I would be fine taking those (the concerns I had are just details)
but they depend on all the annotations. Alternatively I can take the whole
thing but then we'll need some acks.
 
> o Patches 25-29 deal with kernel range TLB flush IPIs

I'll leave these more time for now ;o)
And if they ever go somewhere, it should be through x86 tree.

Also, here is another candidate usecase for this deferral thing.
I remember Phil Auld complaining that stop_machine() on CPU offlining was
a big problem for nohz_full. Especially while we are working on
a cpuset interface to toggle nohz_full but this will require the CPUs
to be offline.

So my point is that when a CPU goes offline, stop_machine() puts all
CPUs into a loop with IRQs disabled. CPUs in userspace could possibly
escape that since they don't touch the kernel anyway. But as soon as
they enter the kernel, they should either acquire the final state of
stop_machine if completed or join the global loop if in the middle.

Thanks.

-- 
Frederic Weisbecker
SUSE Labs