Re: [PATCH v9 00/17] reimplement per-vma lock as a refcount

Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-01-13T16:58:50Z

On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 4:14 AM Lorenzo Stoakes
<lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> wrote:
>
> A nit on subject, I mean this is part of what this series does, and hey -
> we have only so much text to put in here - but isn't this both
> reimplementing per-VMA lock as a refcount _and_ importantly allocating VMAs
> using the RCU typesafe mechanism?
>
> Do we have to do both in one series? Can we split this out? I mean maybe
> that's just churny and unnecessary, but to me this series is 'allocate VMAs
> RCU safe and refcount VMA lock' or something like this. Maybe this is
> nitty... but still :)

There is "motivational dependency" because one of the main reasons I'm
converting the vm_lock into vm_refcnt is to make it easier to add
SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU (see my last reply to Hillf). But technically we
can leave the SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU out of this series if that makes
thighs easier. That would be the 2 patches at the end:

mm: prepare lock_vma_under_rcu() for vma reuse possibility
mm: make vma cache SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU

I made sure that each patch is bisectable, so there should not be a
problem with tracking issues.

>
> One general comment here - this is a really major change in how this stuff
> works, and yet I don't see any tests anywhere in the series.

Hmm. I was diligently updating the tests to reflect the replacement of
vm_lock with vm_refcnt and adding assertions for detach/attach cases.
This actually reminds me that I missed updading vm_area_struct in
vma_internal.h for the member regrouping patch; will add that. I think
the only part that did not affect tests is SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU but I
was not sure what kind of testing I can add for that. Any suggestions
would be welcomed.

>
> I know it's tricky to write tests for this, but the new VMA testing
> environment should make it possible to test a _lot_ more than we previously
> could.
>
> However due to some (*ahem*) interesting distribution of where functions
> are, most notably stuff in kernel/fork.c, I guess we can't test
> _everything_ there effectively.
>
> But I do feel like we should be able to do better than having absolutely no
> testing added for this?

Again, I'm open to suggestions for SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU testing but
for the rest I thought the tests were modified accordingly.

>
> I think there's definitely quite a bit you could test now, at least in
> asserting fundamentals in tools/testing/vma/vma.c.
>
> This can cover at least detached state asserts in various scenarios.

Ok, you mean to check that VMA re-attachment/re-detachment would
trigger assertions? I'll look into adding tests for that.

>
> But that won't cover off the really gnarly stuff here around RCU slab
> allocation, and determining precisely how to test that in a sensible way is
> maybe less clear.
>
> But I'd like to see _something_ here please, this is more or less
> fundamentally changing how all VMAs are allocated and to just have nothing
> feels unfortunate.

Again, I'm open to suggestions on what kind of testing I can add for
SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU change.

>
> I'm already nervous because we've hit issues coming up to v9 and we're not
> 100% sure if a recent syzkaller is related to these changes or not, I'm not
> sure how much we can get assurances with tests but I'd like something.

If you are referring to the issue at [1], I think David ran the
syzcaller against mm-stable that does not contain this patchset and
the issue still triggered (see [2]). This of course does not guarantee
that this patchset has no other issues :) I'll try adding tests for
re-attaching, re-detaching and welcome ideas on how to test
SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU transition.
Thanks,
Suren.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/6758f0cc.050a0220.17f54a.0001.GAE@google.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/67823fba.050a0220.216c54.001c.GAE@google.com/

>
> Thanks!
>
> On Fri, Jan 10, 2025 at 08:25:47PM -0800, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> > Back when per-vma locks were introduces, vm_lock was moved out of
> > vm_area_struct in [1] because of the performance regression caused by
> > false cacheline sharing. Recent investigation [2] revealed that the
> > regressions is limited to a rather old Broadwell microarchitecture and
> > even there it can be mitigated by disabling adjacent cacheline
> > prefetching, see [3].
> > Splitting single logical structure into multiple ones leads to more
> > complicated management, extra pointer dereferences and overall less
> > maintainable code. When that split-away part is a lock, it complicates
> > things even further. With no performance benefits, there are no reasons
> > for this split. Merging the vm_lock back into vm_area_struct also allows
> > vm_area_struct to use SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU later in this patchset.
> > This patchset:
> > 1. moves vm_lock back into vm_area_struct, aligning it at the cacheline
> > boundary and changing the cache to be cacheline-aligned to minimize
> > cacheline sharing;
> > 2. changes vm_area_struct initialization to mark new vma as detached until
> > it is inserted into vma tree;
> > 3. replaces vm_lock and vma->detached flag with a reference counter;
> > 4. regroups vm_area_struct members to fit them into 3 cachelines;
> > 5. changes vm_area_struct cache to SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU to allow for their
> > reuse and to minimize call_rcu() calls.
> >
> > Pagefault microbenchmarks show performance improvement:
> > Hmean faults/cpu-1 507926.5547 ( 0.00%) 506519.3692 * -0.28%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-4 479119.7051 ( 0.00%) 481333.6802 * 0.46%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-7 452880.2961 ( 0.00%) 455845.6211 * 0.65%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-12 347639.1021 ( 0.00%) 352004.2254 * 1.26%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-21 200061.2238 ( 0.00%) 229597.0317 * 14.76%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-30 145251.2001 ( 0.00%) 164202.5067 * 13.05%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-48 106848.4434 ( 0.00%) 120641.5504 * 12.91%*
> > Hmean faults/cpu-56 92472.3835 ( 0.00%) 103464.7916 * 11.89%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-1 507566.1468 ( 0.00%) 506139.0811 * -0.28%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-4 1880478.2402 ( 0.00%) 1886795.6329 * 0.34%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-7 3106394.3438 ( 0.00%) 3140550.7485 * 1.10%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-12 4061358.4795 ( 0.00%) 4112477.0206 * 1.26%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-21 3988619.1169 ( 0.00%) 4577747.1436 * 14.77%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-30 3909839.5449 ( 0.00%) 4311052.2787 * 10.26%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-48 4761108.4691 ( 0.00%) 5283790.5026 * 10.98%*
> > Hmean faults/sec-56 4885561.4590 ( 0.00%) 5415839.4045 * 10.85%*
> >
> > Changes since v8 [4]:
> > - Change subject for the cover letter, per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Added Reviewed-by and Acked-by, per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Added static check for no-limit case in __refcount_add_not_zero_limited,
> > per David Laight
> > - Fixed vma_refcount_put() to call rwsem_release() unconditionally,
> > per Hillf Danton and Vlastimil Babka
> > - Use a copy of vma->vm_mm in vma_refcount_put() in case vma is freed from
> > under us, per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Removed extra rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock() in vma_end_read(),
> > per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Changed __vma_enter_locked() parameter to centralize refcount logic,
> > per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Amended description in vm_lock replacement patch explaining the effects
> > of the patch on vm_area_struct size, per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Added vm_area_struct member regrouping patch [5] into the series
> > - Renamed vma_copy() into vm_area_init_from(), per Liam R. Howlett
> > - Added a comment for vm_area_struct to update vm_area_init_from() when
> > adding new members, per Vlastimil Babka
> > - Updated a comment about unstable src->shared.rb when copying a vma in
> > vm_area_init_from(), per Vlastimil Babka
> >
> > [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230227173632.3292573-34-surenb@google.com/
> > [2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZsQyI%2F087V34JoIt@xsang-OptiPlex-9020/
> > [3] https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAJuCfpEisU8Lfe96AYJDZ+OM4NoPmnw9bP53cT_kbfP_pR+-2g@mail.gmail.com/
> > [4] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250109023025.2242447-1-surenb@google.com/
> > [5] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20241111205506.3404479-5-surenb@google.com/
> >
> > Patchset applies over mm-unstable after reverting v8
> > (current SHA range: 235b5129cb7b - 9e6b24c58985)
> >
> > Suren Baghdasaryan (17):
> > mm: introduce vma_start_read_locked{_nested} helpers
> > mm: move per-vma lock into vm_area_struct
> > mm: mark vma as detached until it's added into vma tree
> > mm: introduce vma_iter_store_attached() to use with attached vmas
> > mm: mark vmas detached upon exit
> > types: move struct rcuwait into types.h
> > mm: allow vma_start_read_locked/vma_start_read_locked_nested to fail
> > mm: move mmap_init_lock() out of the header file
> > mm: uninline the main body of vma_start_write()
> > refcount: introduce __refcount_{add|inc}_not_zero_limited
> > mm: replace vm_lock and detached flag with a reference count
> > mm: move lesser used vma_area_struct members into the last cacheline
> > mm/debug: print vm_refcnt state when dumping the vma
> > mm: remove extra vma_numab_state_init() call
> > mm: prepare lock_vma_under_rcu() for vma reuse possibility
> > mm: make vma cache SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU
> > docs/mm: document latest changes to vm_lock
> >
> > Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst | 44 ++++----
> > include/linux/mm.h | 156 ++++++++++++++++++++++-------
> > include/linux/mm_types.h | 75 +++++++-------
> > include/linux/mmap_lock.h | 6 --
> > include/linux/rcuwait.h | 13 +--
> > include/linux/refcount.h | 24 ++++-
> > include/linux/slab.h | 6 --
> > include/linux/types.h | 12 +++
> > kernel/fork.c | 129 +++++++++++-------------
> > mm/debug.c | 12 +++
> > mm/init-mm.c | 1 +
> > mm/memory.c | 97 ++++++++++++++++--
> > mm/mmap.c | 3 +-
> > mm/userfaultfd.c | 32 +++---
> > mm/vma.c | 23 ++---
> > mm/vma.h | 15 ++-
> > tools/testing/vma/linux/atomic.h | 5 +
> > tools/testing/vma/vma_internal.h | 93 ++++++++---------
> > 18 files changed, 465 insertions(+), 281 deletions(-)
> >
> > --
> > 2.47.1.613.gc27f4b7a9f-goog
> >