Re: [PATCH v7 1/3] x86/fpu: Measure the Latency of XSAVE and XRSTOR

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Thu Sep 21 2023 - 14:52:31 EST



* Yi Sun <yi.sun@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> @@ -113,7 +116,7 @@ static inline u64 xfeatures_mask_independent(void)
> * original instruction which gets replaced. We need to use it here as the
> * address of the instruction where we might get an exception at.
> */
> -#define XSTATE_XSAVE(st, lmask, hmask, err) \
> +#define __XSTATE_XSAVE(st, lmask, hmask, err) \
> asm volatile(ALTERNATIVE_3(XSAVE, \
> XSAVEOPT, X86_FEATURE_XSAVEOPT, \
> XSAVEC, X86_FEATURE_XSAVEC, \
> @@ -130,7 +133,7 @@ static inline u64 xfeatures_mask_independent(void)
> * Use XRSTORS to restore context if it is enabled. XRSTORS supports compact
> * XSAVE area format.
> */
> -#define XSTATE_XRESTORE(st, lmask, hmask) \
> +#define __XSTATE_XRESTORE(st, lmask, hmask) \
> asm volatile(ALTERNATIVE(XRSTOR, \
> XRSTORS, X86_FEATURE_XSAVES) \
> "\n" \
> @@ -140,6 +143,35 @@ static inline u64 xfeatures_mask_independent(void)
> : "D" (st), "m" (*st), "a" (lmask), "d" (hmask) \
> : "memory")
>
> +#if defined(CONFIG_X86_DEBUG_FPU)
> +#define XSTATE_XSAVE(fps, lmask, hmask, err) \
> + do { \
> + struct fpstate *f = fps; \
> + u64 tc = -1; \
> + if (tracepoint_enabled(x86_fpu_latency_xsave)) \
> + tc = trace_clock(); \
> + __XSTATE_XSAVE(&f->regs.xsave, lmask, hmask, err); \
> + if (tracepoint_enabled(x86_fpu_latency_xsave)) \
> + trace_x86_fpu_latency_xsave(f, trace_clock() - tc);\
> + } while (0)
> +
> +#define XSTATE_XRESTORE(fps, lmask, hmask) \
> + do { \
> + struct fpstate *f = fps; \
> + u64 tc = -1; \
> + if (tracepoint_enabled(x86_fpu_latency_xrstor)) \
> + tc = trace_clock(); \
> + __XSTATE_XRESTORE(&f->regs.xsave, lmask, hmask); \
> + if (tracepoint_enabled(x86_fpu_latency_xrstor)) \
> + trace_x86_fpu_latency_xrstor(f, trace_clock() - tc);\

This v7 version does not adequately address the review feedback I gave for
v6: it adds tracing overhead to potential hot paths, and putting it behind
CONFIG_X86_DEBUG_FPU is not a solution either: it's default-y, so de-facto
enabled on all major distros...

It seems unnecessarily complex: why does it have to measure latency
directly? Tracepoints *by default* come with event timestamps. A latency
measurement tool should be able to subtract two timestamps to extract the
latency between two tracepoints...

In fact, function tracing is enabled on all major Linux distros:

kepler:~/tip> grep FUNCTION_TRACER /boot/config-6.2.0-33-generic
CONFIG_HAVE_FUNCTION_TRACER=y
CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER=y

Why not just enable function tracing for the affected FPU context switching
functions?

The relevant functions are already standalone in a typical kernel:

xsave: # ffffffff8103cfe0 T save_fpregs_to_fpstate
xrstor: # ffffffff8103d160 T restore_fpregs_from_fpstate
xrstor_supervisor: # ffffffff8103dc50 T fpu__clear_user_states

... and FPU context switching overhead dominates the cost of these
functions.

Thanks,

Ingo