[PATCH 00/15] sysctl: Remove sentinel elements from drivers

Joel Granados via B4 Relay
2023-09-28T13:20:45Z

From: Joel Granados <j.granados@samsung.com>

What?
These commits remove the sentinel element (last empty element) from the
sysctl arrays of all the files under the "drivers/" directory that use a
sysctl array for registration. The merging of the preparation patches
(in https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZO5Yx5JFogGi%2FcBo@bombadil.infradead.org/)
to mainline allows us to just remove sentinel elements without changing
behavior (more info here [1]).

These commits are part of a bigger set (here
https://github.com/Joelgranados/linux/tree/tag/sysctl_remove_empty_elem_V4)
that remove the ctl_table sentinel. Make the review process easier by
chunking the commits into manageable pieces. Each chunk can be reviewed
separately without noise from parallel sets.

Now that the architecture chunk has been mostly reviewed [6], we send
the "drivers/" directory. Once this one is done, it will be follwed by
"fs/*", "kernel/*", "net/*" and miscellaneous. The final set will remove
the unneeded check for ->procname == NULL.

Why?
By removing the sysctl sentinel elements we avoid kernel bloat as
ctl_table arrays get moved out of kernel/sysctl.c into their own
respective subsystems. This move was started long ago to avoid merge
conflicts; the sentinel removal bit came after Mathew Wilcox suggested
it to avoid bloating the kernel by one element as arrays moved out. This
patchset will reduce the overall build time size of the kernel and run
time memory bloat by about ~64 bytes per declared ctl_table array. I
have consolidated some links that shed light on the history of this
effort [2].

Testing:
* Ran sysctl selftests (./tools/testing/selftests/sysctl/sysctl.sh)
* Ran this through 0-day with no errors or warnings

Size saving after removing all sentinels:
These are the bytes that we save after removing all the sentinels
(this plus all the other chunks). I included them to get an idea of
how much memory we are talking about.
* bloat-o-meter:
- The "yesall" configuration results save 9158 bytes
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230621091000.424843-1-j.granados@samsung.com/
- The "tiny" config + CONFIG_SYSCTL save 1215 bytes
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230809105006.1198165-1-j.granados@samsung.com/
* memory usage:
In memory savings are measured to be 7296 bytes. (here is how to
measure [3])

Size saving after this patchset:
* bloat-o-meter
- The "yesall" config saves 2432 bytes [4]
- The "tiny" config saves 64 bytes [5]
* memory usage:
In this case there were no bytes saved because I do not have any
of the drivers in the patch. To measure it comment the printk in
`new_dir` and uncomment the if conditional in `new_links` [3].

Comments/feedback greatly appreciated

Best
Joel

[1]
We are able to remove a sentinel table without behavioral change by
introducing a table_size argument in the same place where procname is
checked for NULL. The idea is for it to keep stopping when it hits
->procname == NULL, while the sentinel is still present. And when the
sentinel is removed, it will stop on the table_size. You can go to
(https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230809105006.1198165-1-j.granados@samsung.com/)
for more information.

[2]
Links Related to the ctl_table sentinel removal:
* Good summary from Luis sent with the "pull request" for the
preparation patches.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZO5Yx5JFogGi%2FcBo@bombadil.infradead.org/
* Another very good summary from Luis.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZMFizKFkVxUFtSqa@bombadil.infradead.org/
* This is a patch set that replaces register_sysctl_table with register_sysctl
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230302204612.782387-1-mcgrof@kernel.org/
* Patch set to deprecate register_sysctl_paths()
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230302202826.776286-1-mcgrof@kernel.org/
* Here there is an explicit expectation for the removal of the sentinel element.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230321130908.6972-1-frank.li@vivo.com
* The "ARRAY_SIZE" approach was mentioned (proposed?) in this thread
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20220220060626.15885-1-tangmeng@uniontech.com

[3]
To measure the in memory savings apply this on top of this patchset.

"
diff --git a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
index c88854df0b62..e0073a627bac 100644
--- a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
+++ b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
@@ -976,6 +976,8 @@ static struct ctl_dir *new_dir(struct ctl_table_set *set,
table[0].procname = new_name;
table[0].mode = S_IFDIR|S_IRUGO|S_IXUGO;
init_header(&new->header, set->dir.header.root, set, node, table, 1);
+ // Counts additional sentinel used for each new dir.
+ printk("%ld sysctl saved mem kzalloc \n", sizeof(struct ctl_table));

return new;
}
@@ -1199,6 +1201,9 @@ static struct ctl_table_header *new_links(struct ctl_dir *dir, struct ctl_table_
link_name += len;
link++;
}
+ // Counts additional sentinel used for each new registration
+ //if ((head->ctl_table + head->ctl_table_size)->procname)
+ printk("%ld sysctl saved mem kzalloc \n", sizeof(struct ctl_table));
init_header(links, dir->header.root, dir->header.set, node, link_table,
head->ctl_table_size);
links->nreg = nr_entries;
"
and then run the following bash script in the kernel:

accum=0
for n in $(dmesg | grep kzalloc | awk '{print $3}') ; do
echo $n
accum=$(calc "$accum + $n")
done
echo $accum

[4]
add/remove: 0/0 grow/shrink: 0/21 up/down: 0/-2432 (-2432)
Function old new delta
xpc_sys_xpc_hb 192 128 -64
xpc_sys_xpc 128 64 -64
vrf_table 128 64 -64
ucma_ctl_table 128 64 -64
tty_table 192 128 -64
sg_sysctls 128 64 -64
scsi_table 128 64 -64
random_table 448 384 -64
raid_table 192 128 -64
oa_table 192 128 -64
mac_hid_files 256 192 -64
iwcm_ctl_table 128 64 -64
ipmi_table 128 64 -64
hv_ctl_table 128 64 -64
hpet_table 128 64 -64
firmware_config_table 192 128 -64
cdrom_table 448 384 -64
balloon_table 128 64 -64
parport_sysctl_template 912 720 -192
parport_default_sysctl_table 584 136 -448
parport_device_sysctl_template 776 136 -640
Total: Before=429940038, After=429937606, chg -0.00%

[5]
add/remove: 0/0 grow/shrink: 0/1 up/down: 0/-64 (-64)
Function old new delta
random_table 448 384 -64
Total: Before=1885527, After=1885463, chg -0.00%

[6] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230913-jag-sysctl_remove_empty_elem_arch-v2-0-d1bd13a29bae@samsung.com/

Signed-off-by: Joel Granados <j.granados@samsung.com>

---

---
Joel Granados (15):
cdrom: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
hpet: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
xen: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
tty: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
scsi: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
parport: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
macintosh: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
infiniband: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
char-misc: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
vrf: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
sgi-xp: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
fw loader: Remove the now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
raid: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
hyper-v/azure: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array
intel drm: Remove now superfluous sentinel element from ctl_table array

drivers/base/firmware_loader/fallback_table.c | 3 +-
drivers/cdrom/cdrom.c | 3 +-
drivers/char/hpet.c | 3 +-
drivers/char/ipmi/ipmi_poweroff.c | 3 +-
drivers/char/random.c | 3 +-
drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_perf.c | 3 +-
drivers/hv/hv_common.c | 3 +-
drivers/infiniband/core/iwcm.c | 3 +-
drivers/infiniband/core/ucma.c | 3 +-
drivers/macintosh/mac_hid.c | 3 +-
drivers/md/md.c | 3 +-
drivers/misc/sgi-xp/xpc_main.c | 6 ++--
drivers/net/vrf.c | 3 +-
drivers/parport/procfs.c | 42 ++++++++++++---------------
drivers/scsi/scsi_sysctl.c | 3 +-
drivers/scsi/sg.c | 3 +-
drivers/tty/tty_io.c | 3 +-
drivers/xen/balloon.c | 3 +-
18 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 60 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 0e945134b680040b8613e962f586d91b6d40292d
change-id: 20230927-jag-sysctl_remove_empty_elem_drivers-f034962a0d8c

Best regards,
--
Joel Granados <j.granados@samsung.com>