[PATCH 6.18 046/212] sched_ext: Simplify breather mechanism with scx_aborting flag

Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-03-23T14:03:10Z

From: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>

[ Upstream commit a69040ed57f50156e5452474d25c79b9e62075d0 ]

The breather mechanism was introduced in 62dcbab8b0ef ("sched_ext: Avoid
live-locking bypass mode switching") and e32c260195e6 ("sched_ext: Enable the
ops breather and eject BPF scheduler on softlockup") to prevent live-locks by
injecting delays when CPUs are trapped in dispatch paths.

Currently, it uses scx_breather_depth (atomic_t) and scx_in_softlockup
(unsigned long) with separate increment/decrement and cleanup operations. The
breather is only activated when aborting, so tie it directly to the exit
mechanism. Replace both variables with scx_aborting flag set when exit is
claimed and cleared after bypass is enabled. Introduce scx_claim_exit() to
consolidate exit_kind claiming and breather enablement. This eliminates
scx_clear_softlockup() and simplifies scx_softlockup() and scx_bypass().

The breather mechanism will be replaced by a different abort mechanism in a
future patch. This simplification prepares for that change.

Reviewed-by: Dan Schatzberg <schatzberg.dan@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Emil Tsalapatis <emil@etsalapatis.com>
Acked-by: Andrea Righi <arighi@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Stable-dep-of: 83236b2e43db ("sched_ext: Disable preemption between scx_claim_exit() and kicking helper work")
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
kernel/sched/ext.c | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------
1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)

--- a/kernel/sched/ext.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/ext.c
@@ -33,9 +33,8 @@ static DEFINE_MUTEX(scx_enable_mutex);
DEFINE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(__scx_enabled);
DEFINE_STATIC_PERCPU_RWSEM(scx_fork_rwsem);
static atomic_t scx_enable_state_var = ATOMIC_INIT(SCX_DISABLED);
-static unsigned long scx_in_softlockup;
-static atomic_t scx_breather_depth = ATOMIC_INIT(0);
static int scx_bypass_depth;
+static bool scx_aborting;
static bool scx_init_task_enabled;
static bool scx_switching_all;
DEFINE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(__scx_switched_all);
@@ -1791,7 +1790,7 @@ static void scx_breather(struct rq *rq)

lockdep_assert_rq_held(rq);

- if (likely(!atomic_read(&scx_breather_depth)))
+ if (likely(!READ_ONCE(scx_aborting)))
return;

raw_spin_rq_unlock(rq);
@@ -1800,9 +1799,9 @@ static void scx_breather(struct rq *rq)

do {
int cnt = 1024;
- while (atomic_read(&scx_breather_depth) && --cnt)
+ while (READ_ONCE(scx_aborting) && --cnt)
cpu_relax();
- } while (atomic_read(&scx_breather_depth) &&
+ } while (READ_ONCE(scx_aborting) &&
time_before64(ktime_get_ns(), until));

raw_spin_rq_lock(rq);
@@ -3718,30 +3717,14 @@ void scx_softlockup(u32 dur_s)
goto out_unlock;
}

- /* allow only one instance, cleared at the end of scx_bypass() */
- if (test_and_set_bit(0, &scx_in_softlockup))
- goto out_unlock;
-
printk_deferred(KERN_ERR "sched_ext: Soft lockup - CPU%d stuck for %us, disabling \"%s\"\n",
smp_processor_id(), dur_s, scx_root->ops.name);

- /*
- * Some CPUs may be trapped in the dispatch paths. Enable breather
- * immediately; otherwise, we might even be able to get to scx_bypass().
- */
- atomic_inc(&scx_breather_depth);
-
scx_error(sch, "soft lockup - CPU#%d stuck for %us", smp_processor_id(), dur_s);
out_unlock:
rcu_read_unlock();
}

-static void scx_clear_softlockup(void)
-{
- if (test_and_clear_bit(0, &scx_in_softlockup))
- atomic_dec(&scx_breather_depth);
-}
-
/**
* scx_bypass - [Un]bypass scx_ops and guarantee forward progress
* @bypass: true for bypass, false for unbypass
@@ -3802,8 +3785,6 @@ static void scx_bypass(bool bypass)
ktime_get_ns() - bypass_timestamp);
}

- atomic_inc(&scx_breather_depth);
-
/*
* No task property is changing. We just need to make sure all currently
* queued tasks are re-queued according to the new scx_rq_bypassing()
@@ -3860,10 +3841,8 @@ static void scx_bypass(bool bypass)
raw_spin_rq_unlock(rq);
}

- atomic_dec(&scx_breather_depth);
unlock:
raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&bypass_lock, flags);
- scx_clear_softlockup();
}

static void free_exit_info(struct scx_exit_info *ei)
@@ -3958,6 +3937,7 @@ static void scx_disable_workfn(struct kt

/* guarantee forward progress by bypassing scx_ops */
scx_bypass(true);
+ WRITE_ONCE(scx_aborting, false);

switch (scx_set_enable_state(SCX_DISABLING)) {
case SCX_DISABLING:
@@ -4086,9 +4066,24 @@ done:
scx_bypass(false);
}

-static void scx_disable(enum scx_exit_kind kind)
+static bool scx_claim_exit(struct scx_sched *sch, enum scx_exit_kind kind)
{
int none = SCX_EXIT_NONE;
+
+ if (!atomic_try_cmpxchg(&sch->exit_kind, &none, kind))
+ return false;
+
+ /*
+ * Some CPUs may be trapped in the dispatch paths. Enable breather
+ * immediately; otherwise, we might not even be able to get to
+ * scx_bypass().
+ */
+ WRITE_ONCE(scx_aborting, true);
+ return true;
+}
+
+static void scx_disable(enum scx_exit_kind kind)
+{
struct scx_sched *sch;

if (WARN_ON_ONCE(kind == SCX_EXIT_NONE || kind == SCX_EXIT_DONE))
@@ -4097,7 +4092,7 @@ static void scx_disable(enum scx_exit_ki
rcu_read_lock();
sch = rcu_dereference(scx_root);
if (sch) {
- atomic_try_cmpxchg(&sch->exit_kind, &none, kind);
+ scx_claim_exit(sch, kind);
kthread_queue_work(sch->helper, &sch->disable_work);
}
rcu_read_unlock();
@@ -4418,9 +4413,8 @@ static void scx_vexit(struct scx_sched *
const char *fmt, va_list args)
{
struct scx_exit_info *ei = sch->exit_info;
- int none = SCX_EXIT_NONE;

- if (!atomic_try_cmpxchg(&sch->exit_kind, &none, kind))
+ if (!scx_claim_exit(sch, kind))
return;

ei->exit_code = exit_code;
@@ -4645,6 +4639,8 @@ static void scx_enable_workfn(struct kth
*/
WARN_ON_ONCE(scx_set_enable_state(SCX_ENABLING) != SCX_DISABLED);
WARN_ON_ONCE(scx_root);
+ if (WARN_ON_ONCE(READ_ONCE(scx_aborting)))
+ WRITE_ONCE(scx_aborting, false);

atomic_long_set(&scx_nr_rejected, 0);