[PATCH 6.1 048/232] sched/rt: Skip currently executing CPU in rto_next_cpu()

Sasha Levin
2026-02-28T18:12:08Z

From: Chen Jinghuang <chenjinghuang2@huawei.com>

[ Upstream commit 94894c9c477e53bcea052e075c53f89df3d2a33e ]

CPU0 becomes overloaded when hosting a CPU-bound RT task, a non-CPU-bound
RT task, and a CFS task stuck in kernel space. When other CPUs switch from
RT to non-RT tasks, RT load balancing (LB) is triggered; with
HAVE_RT_PUSH_IPI enabled, they send IPIs to CPU0 to drive the execution
of rto_push_irq_work_func. During push_rt_task on CPU0,
if next_task->prio < rq->donor->prio, resched_curr() sets NEED_RESCHED
and after the push operation completes, CPU0 calls rto_next_cpu().
Since only CPU0 is overloaded in this scenario, rto_next_cpu() should
ideally return -1 (no further IPI needed).

However, multiple CPUs invoking tell_cpu_to_push() during LB increments
rd->rto_loop_next. Even when rd->rto_cpu is set to -1, the mismatch between
rd->rto_loop and rd->rto_loop_next forces rto_next_cpu() to restart its
search from -1. With CPU0 remaining overloaded (satisfying rt_nr_migratory
&& rt_nr_total > 1), it gets reselected, causing CPU0 to queue irq_work to
itself and send self-IPIs repeatedly. As long as CPU0 stays overloaded and
other CPUs run pull_rt_tasks(), it falls into an infinite self-IPI loop,
which triggers a CPU hardlockup due to continuous self-interrupts.

The trigging scenario is as follows:

cpu0 cpu1 cpu2
pull_rt_task
tell_cpu_to_push
<------------irq_work_queue_on
rto_push_irq_work_func
push_rt_task
resched_curr(rq) pull_rt_task
rto_next_cpu tell_cpu_to_push
<-------------------------- atomic_inc(rto_loop_next)
rd->rto_loop != next
rto_next_cpu
irq_work_queue_on
rto_push_irq_work_func

Fix redundant self-IPI by filtering the initiating CPU in rto_next_cpu().
This solution has been verified to effectively eliminate spurious self-IPIs
and prevent CPU hardlockup scenarios.

Fixes: 4bdced5c9a29 ("sched/rt: Simplify the IPI based RT balancing logic")
Suggested-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Suggested-by: K Prateek Nayak <kprateek.nayak@amd.com>
Signed-off-by: Chen Jinghuang <chenjinghuang2@huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Reviewed-by: Valentin Schneider <vschneid@redhat.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260122012533.673768-1-chenjinghuang2@huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
kernel/sched/rt.c | 5 +++++
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/rt.c b/kernel/sched/rt.c
index 3a2335bc1d58b..99e5d37b3f6eb 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/rt.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/rt.c
@@ -2230,6 +2230,7 @@ static void push_rt_tasks(struct rq *rq)
*/
static int rto_next_cpu(struct root_domain *rd)
{
+ int this_cpu = smp_processor_id();
int next;
int cpu;

@@ -2253,6 +2254,10 @@ static int rto_next_cpu(struct root_domain *rd)

rd->rto_cpu = cpu;

+ /* Do not send IPI to self */
+ if (cpu == this_cpu)
+ continue;
+
if (cpu < nr_cpu_ids)
return cpu;

--
2.51.0