[PATCH] locking/osq_lock: Fix false sharing of optimistic_spin_node in osq_lock

From: Guo Hui
Date: Wed Jun 14 2023 - 21:26:15 EST


For the performance of osq_lock,
I have made a patch before:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220628161251.21950-1-guohui@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/

the analysis conclusion is due to the memory access
of the following code caused performance degradation:

cpu = node->cpu - 1;

The instructions corresponding to the C code are:
mov 0x14(%rax),%edi
sub $0x1,%edi

in the X86 operating environment,
causing high cache-misses and degrading performance.

The memory access instructions that cause performance degradation are
further analyzed.The cache-misses of the above instructions are caused
by a large number of cache-line false sharing
when accessing non-local-CPU variables,as follows:

---------------------------------
| struct optimistic_spin_node |
---------------------------------
| next | prev | locked | cpu |
---------------------------------
| cache line |
---------------------------------
| CPU0 |
---------------------------------

When a CPU other than CPU0 reads the value of
optimistic_spin_node->cpu of CPU0,CPU0 frequently modifies
the data of the cache line,which will cause false sharing
on the currently accessing CPU,and the variable of
the structure optimistic_spin_node type will be
defined as a cacheline alignmented per cpu variable,
each optimistic_spin_node variable is bound to the corresponding CPU core:

DEFINE_PER_CPU_SHARED_ALIGNED(struct optimistic_spin_node, osq_node);

Therefore, the value of optimistic_spin_node->cpu is usually unchanged,
so the false sharing caused by access to optimistic_spin_node->cpu
is caused by frequent modification of the other three attributes
of optimistic_spin_node.

There are two solutions as follows:

solution 1:
Put the cpu attribute of optimistic_spin_node into a cacheline separately.
The patch is as follows:

struct optimistic_spin_node {
struct optimistic_spin_node *next, *prev;
int locked; /* 1 if lock acquired */
- int cpu; /* encoded CPU # + 1 value */
+ int cpu ____cacheline_aligned; /* encoded CPU # + 1 value */
};

Unixbench full-core performance data is as follows:
Machine: Hygon X86, 128 cores
with patch without patch promote
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 194923.07 195091 -0.09%
Double-Precision Whetstone 79885.47 79838.87 +0.06%
Execl Throughput 2327.17 2272.1 +2.42%
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 742.1 687.53 +7.94%
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 462.73 428.03 +8.11%
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1600.37 1520.53 +5.25%
Pipe Throughput 79815.33 79522.13 +0.37%
Pipe-based Context Switching 28962.9 27987.8 +3.48%
Process Creation 3084.4 2999.1 +2.84%
Shell Scripts 1 concurrent 11687.1 11394.67 +2.57%
Shell Scripts 8 concurrent 10787.1 10496.17 +2.77%
System Call Overhead 4322.77 4322.23 +0.01%
System Benchmarks Index Score 8079.4 7848.37 +3.0%

solution 2:
The core idea of osq lock is that
the lock applicant spins on the local-CPU variable
to eliminate cache-line bouncing.Therefore,
the same method is used for the above degradation.
For the optimistic_spin_node of the current CPU,
the cpu attribute of its predecessor optimistic_spin_node is
non-local-CPU variables,the cpu attribute of
the predecessor optimistic_spin_node is cached
in the optimistic_spin_node of the current CPU
to eliminate performance degradation
caused by non-local-CPU variable access, as follows:

bool osq_lock(struct optimistic_spin_queue *lock)
{
[... ...]

node->prev = prev;
node->prev_cpu = prev->cpu; --------------- A

[... ...]

WRITE_ONCE(next->prev, prev);
WRITE_ONCE(prev->next, next);
WRITE_ONCE(next->prev_cpu, prev->cpu); -------------- B

[... ...]
}

static inline int node_cpu(struct optimistic_spin_node *node)
{
return node->prev_cpu - 1; ----------------------------- C
}

While setting the prev attribute of the optimistic_spin_node of
the current CPU,the current patch also caches the prev cpu attribute
in the prev_cpu attribute of the optimistic_spin_node of the current CPU,
as in the above code lines A and B,where node is a per cpu variable,
so each one node corresponds to a CPU core,and the cpu attribute of
the node corresponding to the CPU core will not change.
Only when the prev attribute of the node is set,
the prev_cpu of the node may change with the change of prev.
At other times, the prev attribute of the node will not change.
so the prev_cpu of node will not change.
This patch greatly reduces the non-local-CPU variable
access at code line C and improves performance.

Unixbench full-core performance data is as follows:
Machine: Hygon X86, 128 cores
with patch without patch promote
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 194818.7 195091 -0.14%
Double-Precision Whetstone 79847.57 79838.87 +0.01%
Execl Throughput 2372.83 2272.1 +4.43%
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 765 687.53 +11.27%
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 472.13 428.03 +10.30%
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1658.13 1520.53 +9.05%
Pipe Throughput 79634.17 79522.13 +0.14%
Pipe-based Context Switching 28584.7 27987.8 +2.13%
Process Creation 3020.27 2999.1 +0.71%
Shell Scripts 1 concurrent 11890.87 11394.67 +4.35%
Shell Scripts 8 concurrent 10912.9 10496.17 +3.97%
System Call Overhead 4320.63 4322.23 -0.04%
System Benchmarks Index Score 8144.43 7848.37 +4.0%

In summary, the performance of solution 2 is better than solution 1.
Especially use cases: execl, file copy, shell1, shell8,
great improvement,because solution 1 still has the possibility of
remote memory access across NUMA nodes,
and solution 2 completely accesses local-CPU variables,
so solution 2 is better than solution 1.

Both solutions also have a great improvement in the X86 virtual machine.

The current patch also uses solution 2.

Signed-off-by: Guo Hui <guohui@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/osq_lock.h | 1 +
kernel/locking/osq_lock.c | 6 ++++--
2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/osq_lock.h b/include/linux/osq_lock.h
index 5581dbd3bd34..8a1bb36f4a07 100644
--- a/include/linux/osq_lock.h
+++ b/include/linux/osq_lock.h
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ struct optimistic_spin_node {
struct optimistic_spin_node *next, *prev;
int locked; /* 1 if lock acquired */
int cpu; /* encoded CPU # + 1 value */
+ int prev_cpu; /* Only for optimizing false sharing */
};

struct optimistic_spin_queue {
diff --git a/kernel/locking/osq_lock.c b/kernel/locking/osq_lock.c
index d5610ad52b92..bdcd216b73c4 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/osq_lock.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/osq_lock.c
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ static inline int encode_cpu(int cpu_nr)

static inline int node_cpu(struct optimistic_spin_node *node)
{
- return node->cpu - 1;
+ return node->prev_cpu - 1;
}

static inline struct optimistic_spin_node *decode_cpu(int encoded_cpu_val)
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ bool osq_lock(struct optimistic_spin_queue *lock)

prev = decode_cpu(old);
node->prev = prev;
+ node->prev_cpu = prev->cpu;

/*
* osq_lock() unqueue
@@ -141,7 +142,7 @@ bool osq_lock(struct optimistic_spin_queue *lock)
* polling, be careful.
*/
if (smp_cond_load_relaxed(&node->locked, VAL || need_resched() ||
- vcpu_is_preempted(node_cpu(node->prev))))
+ vcpu_is_preempted(node_cpu(node))))
return true;

/* unqueue */
@@ -200,6 +201,7 @@ bool osq_lock(struct optimistic_spin_queue *lock)

WRITE_ONCE(next->prev, prev);
WRITE_ONCE(prev->next, next);
+ WRITE_ONCE(next->prev_cpu, prev->cpu);

return false;
}
--
2.20.1