Re: [PATCH 2/3] x86/asm: Move 'status' from thread_struct to thread_info

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Sun Jan 28 2018 - 14:02:52 EST



* Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The TS_COMPAT bit is very hot and is accessed from code paths that
> mostly also touch thread_info::flags. Move it into struct
> thread_info to improve cache locality.
>
> The only reason it was in thread_struct is that there was a brief
> period during which we didn't allow arch-specific fields in struct
> thread_info.
>
> Linus suggested further changing:
>
> ti->status &= ~(TS_COMPAT|TS_I386_REGS_POKED);
>
> to:
>
> if (unlikely(ti->status & (TS_COMPAT|TS_I386_REGS_POKED)))
> ti->status &= ~(TS_COMPAT|TS_I386_REGS_POKED);
>
> on the theory that frequently dirtying the cacheline even in pure
> 64-bit code that never needs to modify status hurts performance.
> That could be a reasonable followup patch, but I suspect it matters
> less on top of this patch.
>
> Suggested-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/x86/entry/common.c | 4 ++--
> arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h | 2 --
> arch/x86/include/asm/syscall.h | 6 +++---
> arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h | 3 ++-
> arch/x86/kernel/process_64.c | 4 ++--
> arch/x86/kernel/ptrace.c | 2 +-
> arch/x86/kernel/signal.c | 2 +-
> 7 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

Reviewed-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks,

Ingo