Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt: add tests suite appendix

Henrik Austad
2014-09-02T21:53:41Z

On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 11:00:29AM +0100, Juri Lelli wrote:
> Add an appendix briefly describing tools that can be used to test SCHED_DEADLINE
> (and the scheduler in general). Links to where source code of the tools is hosted
> are also provided.
>
> Signed-off-by: Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@arm.com>
> Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
> Cc: Henrik Austad <henrik@austad.us>
> Cc: Dario Faggioli <raistlin@linux.it>
> Cc: Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@gmail.com>
> Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> ---
> Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt
> index 641395e..2f5b174 100644
> --- a/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-deadline.txt
> @@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ CONTENTS
> 5. Tasks CPU affinity
> 5.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
> 6. Future plans
> + A. Test suite
>
>
> 0. WARNING
> @@ -341,3 +342,54 @@ CONTENTS
> throttling patches [https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/2/23/239] but we still are in
> the preliminary phases of the merge and we really seek feedback that would
> help us decide on the direction it should take.
> +
> +Appendix A. Test suite
> +======================
> +
> + The SCHED_DEADLINE policy can be easily tested using two applications that
> + are part of a wider Linux Scheduler validation suite. The suite is
> + available as a GitHub repository: https://github.com/scheduler-tools.
> +
> + The first testing application is called rt-app and can be used to
> + start multiple threads with specific parameters. rt-app supports
> + SCHED_{OTHER,FIFO,RR,DEADLINE} scheduling policies and their related
> + parameters (e.g., niceness, priority, runtime/deadline/period). rt-app
> + is a valuable tool, as it can be used to synthetically recreate certain
> + workloads (maybe mimicking real use-cases) and evaluate how the scheduler
> + behaves under such workloads. In this way, results are easily reproducible.
> + rt-app is available at: https://github.com/scheduler-tools/rt-app.
> +
> + Thread parameters can be specified from the command line, with something like
> + this:
> +
> + # rt-app -t 100000:10000:d -t 150000:20000:f:10 -D5
> +
> + The above creates two threads. The first one, scheduled by SCHED_DEADLINE,
> + executes for 10ms every 100ms and the second one, scheduled at RT priority 10
> + with SCHED_FIFO, executes for 20ms every 150ms. The configuration runs
> + for 5 seconds.

I'd prefer

The above creates 2 threads, T1 and T2. T1 is scheduled by SCHED_DEADLINE
with a 100ms period and 10ms WCET. T2 is handled by SCHED_FIFO priority 10,
150ms period and 20ms WCET. The test will run for a total of 5 seconds.

One can expect the eager reader to have at least a grasp of the terminology
at this stage, using WCET should be acceptable.

> +
> + More interestingly, configurations can be described with a json file that
> + can be passed as input to rt-app with something like this:
> +
> + # rt-app my_config.json
> +
> + The parameters that can be specified with the second method are a superset
> + of the command line options. Please refer to rt-app documentation for more
> + details.

This can be found that this url: ....

> +
> + The second testing application is a modification of schedtool, called
> + schedtool-dl, which can be used to setup SCHED_DEADLINE parameters for a
> + certain pid/application. schedtool-dl is available at:
> + https://github.com/scheduler-tools/schedtool-dl.git.
> +
> + The usage is straightforward:
> +
> + # schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 -e ./my_cpuhog_app
> +
> + With this, my_cpuhog_app is put to run inside a SCHED_DEADLINE reservation
> + of 10ms every 100ms (note that parameters are expressed in microseconds).
> + You can also use schedtool to create a reservation for an already running
> + application, given that you know its pid:
> +
> + # schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 my_app_pid
> --
> 2.0.4

Would it make sense to add an appendix B with a minimal SCHED_DEADLINE
main() ? I for one like to invent my own wheels.

Just my $0.02

--
Henrik