Re: [PATCH net-next v9 4/4] tun/tap & vhost-net: avoid ptr_ring tail-drop when a qdisc is present

[Simon Schippers <simon.schippers@tu-dortmund.de>]

On 4/28/26 16:32, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 04:18:54PM +0200, Simon Schippers wrote:
>> On 4/28/26 16:10, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
>>> On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 03:41:20PM +0200, Simon Schippers wrote:
>>>> On 4/28/26 15:22, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
>>>>> On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 03:10:44PM +0200, Simon Schippers wrote:
>>>>>> On 4/28/26 14:50, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 02:38:59PM +0200, Simon Schippers wrote:
>>>>>>>> This commit prevents tail-drop when a qdisc is present and the ptr_ring
>>>>>>>> becomes full. Once an entry is successfully produced and the ptr_ring
>>>>>>>> reaches capacity, the netdev queue is stopped instead of dropping
>>>>>>>> subsequent packets.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If producing an entry fails anyways due to a race, tun_net_xmit returns
>>>>>>>> NETDEV_TX_BUSY, again avoiding a drop. Such races are expected because
>>>>>>>> LLTX is enabled and the transmit path operates without the usual locking.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If no qdisc is present, the previous tail-drop behavior is preserved.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The existing __tun_wake_queue() function of the consumer races with the
>>>>>>>> producer for waking/stopping the netdev queue: the consumer may drain
>>>>>>>> the ring just as the producer stops the queue, leading to a permanent
>>>>>>>> stall. To avoid this, the producer re-checks the ring after stopping
>>>>>>>> and wakes the queue itself if space was just made. An
>>>>>>>> smp_mb__after_atomic() is required so the re-peek of the ring sees any
>>>>>>>> drain that the consumer performed.
>>>>>>>> smp_mb__after_atomic() pairs with the test_and_clear_bit() inside of
>>>>>>>> netif_wake_subqueue():
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Consumer CPU                  Producer CPU
>>>>>>>> ========================      =========================
>>>>>>>> __ptr_ring_consume()
>>>>>>>> netif_wake_subqueue()         netif_tx_stop_queue()
>>>>>>>>           /\                  smp_mb__after_atomic()
>>>>>>>>           ||                  __ptr_ring_produce_peek()
>>>>>>>> contains RMW operation
>>>>>>>>  test_and_clear_bit()
>>>>>>>>           /\
>>>>>>>>           ||
>>>>>>>>  "Fully ordered RMW:
>>>>>>>> smp_mb() before + after"
>>>>>>>>     - atomic_t.txt
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Benchmarks:
>>>>>>>> The benchmarks show a slight regression in raw transmission performance,
>>>>>>>> though no packets are lost anymore.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Could you include the packets received as well?
>>>>>>> To demonstrate the gains/lack of loss. 
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Do you mean the number of packets received by the VM?
>>>>>> They should just be the same as the number sent (shown below), right?
>>>>>
>>>>> Minus the loss? Which this is about, right?
>>>>
>>>> Yes. I simply calculated "Lost/s":
>>>>
>>>> elapsed_time = 100e6 / sent_pps
>>>> Lost/s = total_errors / elapsed_time
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To get back total_errors for example for TAP
>>>> 1 thread sending:
>>>>
>>>> elapsed_time = 100e6 / 1.136Mpps = 88s
>>>>
>>>> 3758 Mpps = total_errors / 88s
>>>> <=> total_errors = 331 million packets
>>>>
>>>> So, out of 431 million packets sent, 100 million were successfully
>>>> delivered and 331 million were lost.
>>>
>>> That is my issue.
>>>
>>> I kind of have trouble mapping that to the table below.
>>> For example:
>>>
>>>  | TAP        | Transmitted | 1.136 Mpps   | 1.130 Mpps     | -0.6%    |
>>>  |            +-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>  |            | Lost/s      | 3.758 Mpps   | 0 pps          |          |
>>>
>>> how can # of lost packets exceed the # of transmitted packets?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>
>> I just do use the sample script [1]:
>>
>> ./pktgen_sample02_multiqueue.sh -n 100000000 ...
>>
>> ... and this runs until 100_000_000 packets were sucessfully
>> transmitted, independently of the lost packets/errors.
>>
>> [1] Link: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/networking/pktgen.html#sample-scripts
> 
> Confused. Are you saying "transmitted" is actually "received"? And the #
> of packets sent is Transmitted + Lost?

Sorry for my confusing answer.

Yes, "transmitted" in the table should be changed to "received".
And yes, as you said, the real # transmitted then is:
Received + Lost = 1.136 + 3.758 = 4.894 Mpps.

> 
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I assume they would be visible as RX-DRP for TAP.
>>>>>> For TAP + vhost-net I would have to rewrite the XDP drop
>>>>>> program to count the number of dropped packets...
>>>>>> And I would have to automate it...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The previously introduced threshold to only wake after the queue stopped
>>>>>>>> and half of the ring was consumed showed to be a descent choice:
>>>>>>>> Waking the queue whenever a consume made space in the ring strongly
>>>>>>>> degrades performance for tap, while waking only when the ring is empty
>>>>>>>> is too late and also hurts throughput for tap & tap+vhost-net.
>>>>>>>> Other ratios (3/4, 7/8) showed similar results (not shown here), so
>>>>>>>> 1/2 was chosen for the sake of simplicity for both tun/tap and
>>>>>>>> tun/tap+vhost-net.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Test setup:
>>>>>>>> AMD Ryzen 5 5600X at 4.3 GHz, 3200 MHz RAM, isolated QEMU threads;
>>>>>>>> Average over 50 runs @ 100,000,000 packets. SRSO and spectre v2
>>>>>>>> mitigations disabled.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Note for tap+vhost-net:
>>>>>>>> XDP drop program active in VM -> ~2.5x faster, slower for tap due to
>>>>>>>> more syscalls (high utilization of entry_SYSRETQ_unsafe_stack in perf)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> +--------------------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | 1 thread                 | Stock        | Patched with   | diff     |
>>>>>>>> | sending                  |              | fq_codel qdisc |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | TAP        | Transmitted | 1.136 Mpps   | 1.130 Mpps     | -0.6%    |
>>>>>>>> |            +-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> |            | Lost/s      | 3.758 Mpps   | 0 pps          |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | TAP        | Transmitted | 3.858 Mpps   | 3.816 Mpps     | -1.1%    |
>>>>>>>> |            +-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | +vhost-net | Lost/s      | 789.8 Kpps   | 0 pps          |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> +--------------------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | 2 threads                | Stock        | Patched with   | diff     |
>>>>>>>> | sending                  |              | fq_codel qdisc |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | TAP        | Transmitted | 1.117 Mpps   | 1.087 Mpps     | -2.7%    |
>>>>>>>> |            +-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> |            | Lost/s      | 8.476 Mpps   | 0 pps          |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | TAP        | Transmitted | 3.679 Mpps   | 3.464 Mpps     | -5.8%    |
>>>>>>>> |            +-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>> | +vhost-net | Lost/s      | 5.306 Mpps   | 0 pps          |          |
>>>>>>>> +------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+----------+
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Co-developed-by: Tim Gebauer <tim.gebauer@tu-dortmund.de>
>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Tim Gebauer <tim.gebauer@tu-dortmund.de>
>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Simon Schippers <simon.schippers@tu-dortmund.de>
>>>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>>>  drivers/net/tun.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>>>>>>>>  1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
>>>>>>>> index efe809597622..c2a1618cc9db 100644
>>>>>>>> --- a/drivers/net/tun.c
>>>>>>>> +++ b/drivers/net/tun.c
>>>>>>>> @@ -1011,6 +1011,8 @@ static netdev_tx_t tun_net_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev)
>>>>>>>>  	struct netdev_queue *queue;
>>>>>>>>  	struct tun_file *tfile;
>>>>>>>>  	int len = skb->len;
>>>>>>>> +	bool qdisc_present;
>>>>>>>> +	int ret;
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>>  	rcu_read_lock();
>>>>>>>>  	tfile = rcu_dereference(tun->tfiles[txq]);
>>>>>>>> @@ -1065,13 +1067,37 @@ static netdev_tx_t tun_net_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev)
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>>  	nf_reset_ct(skb);
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>> -	if (ptr_ring_produce(&tfile->tx_ring, skb)) {
>>>>>>>> +	queue = netdev_get_tx_queue(dev, txq);
>>>>>>>> +	qdisc_present = !qdisc_txq_has_no_queue(queue);
>>>>>>>> +
>>>>>>>> +	spin_lock(&tfile->tx_ring.producer_lock);
>>>>>>>> +	ret = __ptr_ring_produce(&tfile->tx_ring, skb);
>>>>>>>> +	if (__ptr_ring_produce_peek(&tfile->tx_ring) && qdisc_present) {
>>>>>>>> +		netif_tx_stop_queue(queue);
>>>>>>>> +		/* Re-peek and wake if the consumer drained the ring
>>>>>>>> +		 * concurrently in a race. smp_mb__after_atomic() pairs
>>>>>>>> +		 * with the test_and_clear_bit() of netif_wake_subqueue()
>>>>>>>> +		 * in __tun_wake_queue().
>>>>>>>> +		 */
>>>>>>>> +		smp_mb__after_atomic();
>>>>>>>> +		if (!__ptr_ring_produce_peek(&tfile->tx_ring))
>>>>>>>> +			netif_tx_wake_queue(queue);
>>>>>>>> +	}
>>>>>>>> +	spin_unlock(&tfile->tx_ring.producer_lock);
>>>>>>>> +
>>>>>>>> +	if (ret) {
>>>>>>>> +		/* If a qdisc is attached to our virtual device,
>>>>>>>> +		 * returning NETDEV_TX_BUSY is allowed.
>>>>>>>> +		 */
>>>>>>>> +		if (qdisc_present) {
>>>>>>>> +			rcu_read_unlock();
>>>>>>>> +			return NETDEV_TX_BUSY;
>>>>>>>> +		}
>>>>>>>>  		drop_reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_FULL_RING;
>>>>>>>>  		goto drop;
>>>>>>>>  	}
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>>  	/* dev->lltx requires to do our own update of trans_start */
>>>>>>>> -	queue = netdev_get_tx_queue(dev, txq);
>>>>>>>>  	txq_trans_cond_update(queue);
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>>  	/* Notify and wake up reader process */
>>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>>> 2.43.0
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>