Re: [PATCH v3 1/2] sched_ext: Add lockless peek operation for DSQs

Andrea Righi
2025-10-06T17:26:30Z

Hi Ryan,

On Mon, Oct 06, 2025 at 01:04:02PM -0400, Ryan Newton wrote:
> From: Ryan Newton <newton@meta.com>
>
> The builtin DSQ queue data structures are meant to be used by a wide
> range of different sched_ext schedulers with different demands on these
> data structures. They might be per-cpu with low-contention, or
> high-contention shared queues. Unfortunately, DSQs have a coarse-grained
> lock around the whole data structure. Without going all the way to a
> lock-free, more scalable implementation, a small step we can take to
> reduce lock contention is to allow a lockless, small-fixed-cost peek at
> the head of the queue.
>
> This change allows certain custom SCX schedulers to cheaply peek at
> queues, e.g. during load balancing, before locking them. But it
> represents a few extra memory operations to update the pointer each
> time the DSQ is modified, including a memory barrier on ARM so the write
> appears correctly ordered.
>
> This commit adds a first_task pointer field which is updated
> atomically when the DSQ is modified, and allows any thread to peek at
> the head of the queue without holding the lock.
>
> Signed-off-by: Ryan Newton <newton@meta.com>

With the minor nit from PATCH 2/2 this looks good to me.

Reviewed-by: Andrea Righi <arighi@nvidia.com>

Thanks!
-Andrea

> ---
> include/linux/sched/ext.h | 1 +
> kernel/sched/ext.c | 54 +++++++++++++++++++++++-
> tools/sched_ext/include/scx/common.bpf.h | 1 +
> tools/sched_ext/include/scx/compat.bpf.h | 19 +++++++++
> 4 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/sched/ext.h b/include/linux/sched/ext.h
> index d82b7a9b0658..81478d4ae782 100644
> --- a/include/linux/sched/ext.h
> +++ b/include/linux/sched/ext.h
> @@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ enum scx_dsq_id_flags {
> */
> struct scx_dispatch_q {
> raw_spinlock_t lock;
> + struct task_struct __rcu *first_task; /* lockless peek at head */
> struct list_head list; /* tasks in dispatch order */
> struct rb_root priq; /* used to order by p->scx.dsq_vtime */
> u32 nr;
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/ext.c b/kernel/sched/ext.c
> index 2b0e88206d07..6d3537e65001 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/ext.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/ext.c
> @@ -944,8 +944,11 @@ static void dispatch_enqueue(struct scx_sched *sch, struct scx_dispatch_q *dsq,
> container_of(rbp, struct task_struct,
> scx.dsq_priq);
> list_add(&p->scx.dsq_list.node, &prev->scx.dsq_list.node);
> + /* first task unchanged - no update needed */
> } else {
> list_add(&p->scx.dsq_list.node, &dsq->list);
> + /* not builtin and new task is at head - use fastpath */
> + rcu_assign_pointer(dsq->first_task, p);
> }
> } else {
> /* a FIFO DSQ shouldn't be using PRIQ enqueuing */
> @@ -953,10 +956,19 @@ static void dispatch_enqueue(struct scx_sched *sch, struct scx_dispatch_q *dsq,
> scx_error(sch, "DSQ ID 0x%016llx already had PRIQ-enqueued tasks",
> dsq->id);
>
> - if (enq_flags & (SCX_ENQ_HEAD | SCX_ENQ_PREEMPT))
> + if (enq_flags & (SCX_ENQ_HEAD | SCX_ENQ_PREEMPT)) {
> list_add(&p->scx.dsq_list.node, &dsq->list);
> - else
> + /* new task inserted at head - use fastpath */
> + if (!(dsq->id & SCX_DSQ_FLAG_BUILTIN))
> + rcu_assign_pointer(dsq->first_task, p);
> + } else {
> + bool was_empty;
> +
> + was_empty = list_empty(&dsq->list);
> list_add_tail(&p->scx.dsq_list.node, &dsq->list);
> + if (was_empty && !(dsq->id & SCX_DSQ_FLAG_BUILTIN))
> + rcu_assign_pointer(dsq->first_task, p);
> + }
> }
>
> /* seq records the order tasks are queued, used by BPF DSQ iterator */
> @@ -1011,6 +1023,13 @@ static void task_unlink_from_dsq(struct task_struct *p,
> p->scx.dsq_flags &= ~SCX_TASK_DSQ_ON_PRIQ;
> }
>
> + if (!(dsq->id & SCX_DSQ_FLAG_BUILTIN) && dsq->first_task == p) {
> + struct task_struct *first_task;
> +
> + first_task = nldsq_next_task(dsq, NULL, false);
> + rcu_assign_pointer(dsq->first_task, first_task);
> + }
> +
> list_del_init(&p->scx.dsq_list.node);
> dsq_mod_nr(dsq, -1);
> }
> @@ -6084,6 +6103,36 @@ __bpf_kfunc void bpf_iter_scx_dsq_destroy(struct bpf_iter_scx_dsq *it)
> kit->dsq = NULL;
> }
>
> +/**
> + * scx_bpf_dsq_peek - Lockless peek at the first element.
> + * @dsq_id: DSQ to examine.
> + *
> + * Read the first element in the DSQ. This is semantically equivalent to using
> + * the DSQ iterator, but is lockfree.
> + *
> + * Returns the pointer, or NULL indicates an empty queue OR internal error.
> + */
> +__bpf_kfunc struct task_struct *scx_bpf_dsq_peek(u64 dsq_id)
> +{
> + struct scx_sched *sch;
> + struct scx_dispatch_q *dsq;
> +
> + sch = rcu_dereference(scx_root);
> + if (unlikely(!sch))
> + return NULL;
> + if (unlikely(dsq_id & SCX_DSQ_FLAG_BUILTIN)) {
> + scx_error(sch, "peek disallowed on builtin DSQ 0x%llx", dsq_id);
> + return NULL;
> + }
> +
> + dsq = find_user_dsq(sch, dsq_id);
> + if (unlikely(!dsq)) {
> + scx_error(sch, "peek on non-existent DSQ 0x%llx", dsq_id);
> + return NULL;
> + }
> + return rcu_dereference(dsq->first_task);
> +}
> +
> __bpf_kfunc_end_defs();
>
> static s32 __bstr_format(struct scx_sched *sch, u64 *data_buf, char *line_buf,
> @@ -6641,6 +6690,7 @@ BTF_KFUNCS_START(scx_kfunc_ids_any)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_kick_cpu)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_dsq_nr_queued)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_destroy_dsq)
> +BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_dsq_peek, KF_RCU_PROTECTED | KF_RET_NULL)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, bpf_iter_scx_dsq_new, KF_ITER_NEW | KF_RCU_PROTECTED)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, bpf_iter_scx_dsq_next, KF_ITER_NEXT | KF_RET_NULL)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, bpf_iter_scx_dsq_destroy, KF_ITER_DESTROY)
> diff --git a/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/common.bpf.h b/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/common.bpf.h
> index 06e2551033cb..fbf3e7f9526c 100644
> --- a/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/common.bpf.h
> +++ b/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/common.bpf.h
> @@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ u32 scx_bpf_reenqueue_local(void) __ksym;
> void scx_bpf_kick_cpu(s32 cpu, u64 flags) __ksym;
> s32 scx_bpf_dsq_nr_queued(u64 dsq_id) __ksym;
> void scx_bpf_destroy_dsq(u64 dsq_id) __ksym;
> +struct task_struct *scx_bpf_dsq_peek(u64 dsq_id) __ksym __weak;
> int bpf_iter_scx_dsq_new(struct bpf_iter_scx_dsq *it, u64 dsq_id, u64 flags) __ksym __weak;
> struct task_struct *bpf_iter_scx_dsq_next(struct bpf_iter_scx_dsq *it) __ksym __weak;
> void bpf_iter_scx_dsq_destroy(struct bpf_iter_scx_dsq *it) __ksym __weak;
> diff --git a/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/compat.bpf.h b/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/compat.bpf.h
> index dd9144624dc9..97b10c184b2c 100644
> --- a/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/compat.bpf.h
> +++ b/tools/sched_ext/include/scx/compat.bpf.h
> @@ -130,6 +130,25 @@ int bpf_cpumask_populate(struct cpumask *dst, void *src, size_t src__sz) __ksym
> false; \
> })
>
> +
> +/*
> + * v6.19: Introduce lockless peek API for user DSQs.
> + *
> + * Preserve the following macro until v6.21.
> + */
> +static inline struct task_struct *__COMPAT_scx_bpf_dsq_peek(u64 dsq_id)
> +{
> + struct task_struct *p = NULL;
> + struct bpf_iter_scx_dsq it;
> +
> + if (bpf_ksym_exists(scx_bpf_dsq_peek))
> + return scx_bpf_dsq_peek(dsq_id);
> + if (!bpf_iter_scx_dsq_new(&it, dsq_id, 0))
> + p = bpf_iter_scx_dsq_next(&it);
> + bpf_iter_scx_dsq_destroy(&it);
> + return p;
> +}
> +
> /**
> * __COMPAT_is_enq_cpu_selected - Test if SCX_ENQ_CPU_SELECTED is on
> * in a compatible way. We will preserve this __COMPAT helper until v6.16.
> --
> 2.51.0
>