Re: [PATCH printk v2 09/12] printk: add functions to prefer direct printing

Helge Deller
2022-04-07T13:39:23Z

On 4/7/22 11:56, Petr Mladek wrote:
> On Tue 2022-04-05 15:31:32, John Ogness wrote:
>> Once kthread printing is available, console printing will no longer
>> occur in the context of the printk caller. However, there are some
>> special contexts where it is desirable for the printk caller to
>> directly print out kernel messages. Using pr_flush() to wait for
>> threaded printers is only possible if the caller is in a sleepable
>> context and the kthreads are active. That is not always the case.
>>
>> Introduce printk_prefer_direct_enter() and printk_prefer_direct_exit()
>> functions to explicitly (and globally) activate/deactivate preferred
>> direct console printing. The term "direct console printing" refers to
>> printing to all enabled consoles from the context of the printk
>> caller. The term "prefer" is used because this type of printing is
>> only best effort. If the console is currently locked or other
>> printers are already actively printing, the printk caller will need
>> to rely on the other contexts to handle the printing.
>>
>> This preferred direct printing is how all printing is currently
>> handled (unless explicitly deferred).
>>
>> When kthread printing is introduced, there may be some unanticipated
>> problems due to kthreads being unable to flush important messages.
>> In order to minimize such risks, preferred direct printing is
>> activated for the primary important messages when the system
>> experiences general types of major errors. These are:
>>
>> - emergency reboot/shutdown
>> - cpu and rcu stalls
>> - hard and soft lockups
>> - hung tasks
>> - warn
>> - sysrq

I agree that those needs direct printing.
Did you maybe checked how much (e.g. in percentage) of a normal log is then
still left to be printed threadened? Just in case it's not much,
is there still a benefit to introduce threadened printing?

Or another example, e.g. when running on a slow console (the best
testcase I know of is a 9600 baud serial port), where some printks
are threadened. Then a warn printk() has to be shown, doesn't it mean
all threadened printks have to be flushed (waited for) until
the warning can be shown. Will there then still be a measureable time benefit?

Just wondering...

Helge