Re: [PATCH documentation 2/2] kthread: Document ways of reducingOS jitter due to per-CPU kthreads

From: Randy Dunlap
Date: Thu Apr 11 2013 - 16:10:09 EST


On 04/11/13 11:40, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 10:18:26AM -0700, Randy Dunlap wrote:
>> On 04/11/2013 09:05 AM, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
>>> From: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>
>>> The Linux kernel uses a number of per-CPU kthreads, any of which might
>>> contribute to OS jitter at any time. The usual approach to normal
>>> kthreads, namely to affinity them to a "housekeeping" CPU, does not
>>
>> ugh. to affine them
>
> How about s/affinity/bind/ instead?

Yes, that's good.

>>> work with these kthreads because they cannot operate correctly if moved
>>> to some other CPU. This commit therefore lists ways of controlling OS
>>> jitter from the Linux kernel's per-CPU kthreads.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@xxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@xxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Kevin Hilman <khilman@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@xxxxxxxxx>
>>> ---
>>> Documentation/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.txt | 159 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>> 1 file changed, 159 insertions(+)
>>> create mode 100644 Documentation/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.txt
>>>
>>> diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.txt b/Documentation/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.txt
>>> new file mode 100644
>>> index 0000000..495dacf
>>> --- /dev/null
>>> +++ b/Documentation/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.txt
>>> @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
>>> +REDUCING OS JITTER DUE TO PER-CPU KTHREADS
>>> +
>>> +
>>> +Name: irq/%d-%s
>>> +Purpose: Handle threaded interrupts.
>>> +To reduce corresponding OS jitter, do the following:
>>> +1. Use irq affinity to force the irq threads to execute on
>>> + some other CPU.
>>
>> It would be very nice to explain here how that is done.
>
> Documentation/IRQ-affinity.txt
>
> I added a pointer to this near the beginning.
>

Good.

> Thank you for your review and comments! Given my rationale above,
> are you still comfortable with my applying your Reviewed-by?

Sure. Thanks.

>> Reviewed-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


--
~Randy
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