Re: [PATCH v2 sched_ext/for-7.1] sched_ext: Invalidate dispatch decisions on CPU affinity changes

Andrea Righi
2026-04-22T11:03:06Z

Hi Cheng-Yang,

On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 02:33:40PM +0800, Cheng-Yang Chou wrote:
> Hi Tejun, Andrea, and Kuba
>
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 01:13:20PM -1000, Tejun Heo wrote:
> > > The simple way to do this is to do scx_bpf_dsq_insert() at the very beginning,
> > > once we know which task we would like to dispatch, and cancel the pending
> > > dispatch via scx_bpf_dispatch_cancel() if any of the pre-dispatch checks fail
> > > on the BPF side. This way, the "critical section" includes BPF-side checks, and
> > > SCX will ignore the dispatch if there was a dequeue/enqueue racing with the
> > > critical section.
> > >
> > > With this solution, we can throw an error if task_can_run_on_remote_rq() is
> > > false, because we know that there was no racing cpumask change (if there was,
> > > it would have been caught earlier, in finish_dispatch()).
> >
> > Yeah, I think this makes more sense. qseq is already there to provide
> > protection against these events. It's just that the capturing of qseq is too
> > late. If insert/cancel is too ugly, we can introduce another kfunc to
> > capture the qseq - scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin() or something like that - and
> > stash it in a per-cpu variable. That way, qseq would be cover the "current"
> > queued instance and the existing qseq mechanism would be able to reliably
> > ignore the ones that lost race to dequeue.
>
> Since this has been stale for a while, I prepared a patch to implement
> scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin() as suggested.
>
> Is anyone else working on this? If not, I'm happy to send the formal
> patch to fix this.

It's sitting in my TODO list. If you have time to work on this, go ahead and
send the updated patch. I'll take a look at it ASAP.

Thanks,
-Andrea

>
> --
> Cheers,
> Cheng-Yang
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/ext.c b/kernel/sched/ext.c
> index 0a53a0dd64bf..0215a21a02db 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/ext.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/ext.c
> @@ -7933,6 +7933,7 @@ static void scx_dsq_insert_commit(struct scx_sched *sch, struct task_struct *p,
> {
> struct scx_dsp_ctx *dspc = &this_cpu_ptr(sch->pcpu)->dsp_ctx;
> struct task_struct *ddsp_task;
> + unsigned long qseq;
>
> ddsp_task = __this_cpu_read(direct_dispatch_task);
> if (ddsp_task) {
> @@ -7945,9 +7946,16 @@ static void scx_dsq_insert_commit(struct scx_sched *sch, struct task_struct *p,
> return;
> }
>
> + if (dspc->insert_begin_valid) {
> + qseq = dspc->insert_begin_qseq;
> + dspc->insert_begin_valid = false;
> + } else {
> + qseq = atomic_long_read(&p->scx.ops_state) & SCX_OPSS_QSEQ_MASK;
> + }
> +
> dspc->buf[dspc->cursor++] = (struct scx_dsp_buf_ent){
> .task = p,
> - .qseq = atomic_long_read(&p->scx.ops_state) & SCX_OPSS_QSEQ_MASK,
> + .qseq = qseq,
> .dsq_id = dsq_id,
> .enq_flags = enq_flags,
> };
> @@ -7955,6 +7963,39 @@ static void scx_dsq_insert_commit(struct scx_sched *sch, struct task_struct *p,
>
> __bpf_kfunc_start_defs();
>
> +/**
> + * scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin - Snapshot qseq before a dispatch decision
> + * @p: task_struct being considered for dispatch
> + * @aux: implicit BPF argument to access bpf_prog_aux hidden from BPF progs
> + *
> + * Capture @p's qseq before the BPF scheduler reads @p's properties (e.g.
> + * cpus_ptr) to make a dispatch decision. The snapshot is used by the
> + * subsequent scx_bpf_dsq_insert() call, extending the race detection window
> + * to cover any BPF-side checks between this call and the insert. If a
> + * concurrent dequeue/re-enqueue races within this window, finish_dispatch()
> + * detects the qseq mismatch and discards the stale dispatch.
> + */
> +__bpf_kfunc void scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin(struct task_struct *p,
> + const struct bpf_prog_aux *aux)
> +{
> + struct scx_sched *sch;
> + struct scx_dsp_ctx *dspc;
> +
> + guard(rcu)();
> +
> + sch = scx_prog_sched(aux);
> + if (unlikely(!sch))
> + return;
> +
> + if (!scx_kf_allowed(sch, SCX_KF_ENQUEUE | SCX_KF_DISPATCH))
> + return;
> +
> + dspc = &this_cpu_ptr(sch->pcpu)->dsp_ctx;
> + dspc->insert_begin_qseq = atomic_long_read(&p->scx.ops_state) &
> + SCX_OPSS_QSEQ_MASK;
> + dspc->insert_begin_valid = true;
> +}
> +
> /**
> * scx_bpf_dsq_insert - Insert a task into the FIFO queue of a DSQ
> * @p: task_struct to insert
> @@ -8134,6 +8175,7 @@ __bpf_kfunc void scx_bpf_dsq_insert_vtime(struct task_struct *p, u64 dsq_id,
> __bpf_kfunc_end_defs();
>
> BTF_KFUNCS_START(scx_kfunc_ids_enqueue_dispatch)
> +BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin, KF_IMPLICIT_ARGS | KF_RCU)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_dsq_insert, KF_IMPLICIT_ARGS | KF_RCU)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, scx_bpf_dsq_insert___v2, KF_IMPLICIT_ARGS | KF_RCU)
> BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, __scx_bpf_dsq_insert_vtime, KF_IMPLICIT_ARGS | KF_RCU)
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/ext_internal.h b/kernel/sched/ext_internal.h
> index 4a7ffc7f55d2..adc4f1c01b56 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/ext_internal.h
> +++ b/kernel/sched/ext_internal.h
> @@ -989,6 +989,8 @@ struct scx_dsp_ctx {
> struct rq *rq;
> u32 cursor;
> u32 nr_tasks;
> + unsigned long insert_begin_qseq;
> + bool insert_begin_valid;
> struct scx_dsp_buf_ent buf[];
> };
>
> diff --git a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
> index 64dd60b3e922..fb68a7d7e201 100644
> --- a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
> +++ b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
> @@ -155,6 +155,8 @@ static bool dispatch_to_cpu(s32 cpu)
> * reflect the migration-disabled state yet if
> * migrate_disable_switch() hasn't run.
> */
> + scx_bpf_dsq_insert_begin(p);
> +
> if (!bpf_cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, p->cpus_ptr) ||
> (is_migration_disabled(p) && scx_bpf_task_cpu(p) != cpu)) {
> __sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_mismatches, 1);
> --
> --
> 2.48.1