Re: [PATCH v2] locking/rwsem: Avoid double checking before try acquiring write lock

From: Peter Hurley
Date: Tue Sep 16 2014 - 16:09:01 EST


Hi Jason,

On 09/16/2014 03:01 PM, Jason Low wrote:
> Commit 9b0fc9c09f1b checks for if there are known active lockers in
> order to avoid write trylocking using expensive cmpxchg() when it
> likely wouldn't get the lock.
>
> However, a subsequent patch was added such that we directly check for
> sem->count == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS right before trying that cmpxchg().
> Thus, commit 9b0fc9c09f1b now just adds extra overhead. This patch
> deletes it.

It would be better to just not reload sem->count, and check the parameter
count == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS instead. The count parameter is a very recent
load of sem->count (one of which is the latest exclusive read from an
atomic operation), so likely to be just as accurate as a reload of
sem->count without causing more cache line contention.

Regards,
Peter Hurley

> Also, add a comment on why we do an "extra check" of sem->count before
> the cmpxchg().
>
> Signed-off-by: Jason Low <jason.low2@xxxxxx>
> ---
> kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c | 24 +++++++++++++-----------
> 1 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c b/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
> index d6203fa..63d3ef2 100644
> --- a/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
> +++ b/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
> @@ -247,18 +247,20 @@ struct rw_semaphore __sched *rwsem_down_read_failed(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
> return sem;
> }
>
> -static inline bool rwsem_try_write_lock(long count, struct rw_semaphore *sem)
> +static inline bool rwsem_try_write_lock(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
> {
> - if (!(count & RWSEM_ACTIVE_MASK)) {
> - /* try acquiring the write lock */
> - if (sem->count == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS &&
> - cmpxchg(&sem->count, RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS,
> - RWSEM_ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS) == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS) {
> - if (!list_is_singular(&sem->wait_list))
> - rwsem_atomic_update(RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS, sem);
> - return true;
> - }
> + /*
> + * Try acquiring the write lock. Check sem->count first
> + * in order to reduce unnecessary expensive cmpxchg() operations.
> + */
> + if (sem->count == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS &&
> + cmpxchg(&sem->count, RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS,
> + RWSEM_ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS) == RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS) {
> + if (!list_is_singular(&sem->wait_list))
> + rwsem_atomic_update(RWSEM_WAITING_BIAS, sem);
> + return true;
> }
> +
> return false;
> }
>
> @@ -446,7 +448,7 @@ struct rw_semaphore __sched *rwsem_down_write_failed(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
> /* wait until we successfully acquire the lock */
> set_current_state(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
> while (true) {
> - if (rwsem_try_write_lock(count, sem))
> + if (rwsem_try_write_lock(sem))
> break;
> raw_spin_unlock_irq(&sem->wait_lock);
>
>

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