Re: [RFC PATCH] arm64/fpsimd: Don't disable softirq when touching FPSIMD/SVE state

[Dave Martin]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2019 at 10:02:45AM +0100, Julien Grall wrote:
> Hi Dave,
> 
> Thank you for the review.
> 
> On 4/4/19 11:52 AM, Dave Martin wrote:
> >On Fri, Feb 08, 2019 at 04:55:13PM +0000, Julien Grall wrote:
> >>For RT-linux, it might be possible to use migrate_{enable, disable}. I
> >>am quite new with RT and have some trouble to understand the semantics
> >>of migrate_{enable, disable}. So far, I am still unsure if it is possible
> >>to run another userspace task on the same CPU while getting preempted
> >>when the migration is disabled.
> >
> >(Leaving aside the RT aspects for now, but if migrate_{enable,disable}
> >is costly it might not be the best thing to use deep in context switch
> >paths, even if is technically correct...)
> 
> Based on the discussion in this thread, migrate_enable/migrate_disable is
> not suitable in this context.
> 
> The goal of those helpers is to pin the task to the current CPU. On RT, it
> will not disable the preemption. So the current task can be preempted by a
> task with higher priority.
> 
> The next task may require to use the FPSIMD and will potentially result to
> corrupt the state.
> 
> RT folks already saw this corruption because local_bh_disable() does not
> preempt on RT. They are carrying a patch (see "arm64: fpsimd: use
> preemp_disable in addition to local_bh_disable()") to disable preemption
> along with local_bh_disable().
> 
> Alternatively, Julia suggested to introduce a per-cpu lock to protect the
> state. I am thinking to defer this for a follow-up patch. The changes in
> this patch should make it easier because we now have helper to mark the
> critical section.

I'll leave it for the RT folks to comment on this.  (I see Sebastian
already did.)

> 
> >
> >>---
> >>  arch/arm64/include/asm/simd.h |  4 +--
> >>  arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c    | 76 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
> >>  2 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 34 deletions(-)
> >>
> >>diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/simd.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/simd.h
> >>index 6495cc51246f..94c0dac508aa 100644
> >>--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/simd.h
> >>+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/simd.h
> >>@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@
> >>  #include <linux/preempt.h>
> >>  #include <linux/types.h>
> >>-#ifdef CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON
> >>-
> >>  DECLARE_PER_CPU(bool, kernel_neon_busy);
> >
> >Why make this unconditional?  This declaration is only here for
> >may_use_simd() to use.  The stub version of may_use_simd() for the
> >!CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON case doesn't touch it.
> 
> kernel_neon_busy will be used in fpsimd.c even when with
> !CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON. So it makes sense to also declare it in the header
> even if not used.

Ah yes, I missed that.

We don't need all this logic in the !CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON case of
course, but I'm not sure it's worth optimising that special case.
Especially so if we don't see any significant impact in ctxsw-heavy
benchmarks.

> Another solution is to avoid expose kernel_neon_busy outside of fpsimd.c and
> use an helper.

Probably not worth it for now.

> >>+#ifdef CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON
> >>+
> >>  /*
> >>   * may_use_simd - whether it is allowable at this time to issue SIMD
> >>   *                instructions or access the SIMD register file
> >>diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c
> >>index 5ebe73b69961..b7e5dac26190 100644
> >>--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c
> >>+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/fpsimd.c
> >>@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@
> >>   * To prevent this from racing with the manipulation of the task's FPSIMD state
> >>   * from task context and thereby corrupting the state, it is necessary to
> >>   * protect any manipulation of a task's fpsimd_state or TIF_FOREIGN_FPSTATE
> >>- * flag with local_bh_disable() unless softirqs are already masked.
> >>+ * flag with kernel_neon_{disable, enable}. This will still allow softirqs to
> >>+ * run but prevent them to use FPSIMD.
> >>   *
> >>   * For a certain task, the sequence may look something like this:
> >>   * - the task gets scheduled in; if both the task's fpsimd_cpu field
> >>@@ -142,6 +143,9 @@ extern void __percpu *efi_sve_state;
> >>  #endif /* ! CONFIG_ARM64_SVE */
> >>+static void kernel_neon_disable(void);
> >>+static void kernel_neon_enable(void);
> >
> >I find these names a bit confusing: _disable() actualy enables FPSIMD/SVE
> >context access for the current context (i.e., makes it safe).
> >
> >Since these also disable/enable preemption, perhaps we can align them
> >with the existing get_cpu()/put_cpu(), something like:
> >
> >void get_cpu_fpsimd_context();
> >vold put_cpu_fpsimd_context();
> >
> >If you consider it's worth adding the checking helper I alluded to
> >above, it could then be called something like:
> >
> >bool have_cpu_fpsimd_context();
> 
> I am not sure where you suggested a checking helper above. Do you refer to
> exposing kernel_neon_busy even for !CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON?

Hmmm, looks like I got my reply out of order here.

I meant the helper (if any) to check
!preemptible() && !__this_cpu_read(kernel_neon_busy).

Looks like you inferred what I meant later on anyway.

> 
> >
> >>+
> >>  /*
> >>   * Call __sve_free() directly only if you know task can't be scheduled
> >>   * or preempted.
> >>@@ -213,11 +217,11 @@ static void sve_free(struct task_struct *task)
> >>   * thread_struct is known to be up to date, when preparing to enter
> >>   * userspace.
> >>   *
> >>- * Softirqs (and preemption) must be disabled.
> >>+ * Preemption must be disabled.
> >
> >[*] That's not enough: we need to be in kernel_neon_disable()...
> >_enable() (i.e., kernel_neon_busy needs to be true to prevent softirqs
> >messing with the FPSIMD state).
> 
> How about not mentioning preemption at all and just say:
> 
> "The fpsimd context should be acquired before hand".
> 
> This would help if we ever decide to protect critical section differently.

Yes, or even better, name the function used to do this (i.e.,
kernel_neon_disable() or get_cpu_fpsimd_context() or whatever it's
called).

> >
> >>   */
> >>  static void task_fpsimd_load(void)
> >>  {
> >>-	WARN_ON(!in_softirq() && !irqs_disabled());
> >>+	WARN_ON(!preempt_count() && !irqs_disabled());
> >
> >Hmmm, looks like we can rewrite this is preemptible().  See
> >include/linux/preempt.h.
> >
> >Since we are checking that nothing can mess with the FPSIMD regs and
> >associated task metadata, we should also be checking kernel_neon_busy
> >here.
> >
> >For readability, we could wrap all that up in a single helper.
> 
> With what I said above, we could replace this check
> WARN_ON(!have_cpu_fpsimd_context()).

Agreed.

> [...]
> 
> >>+static void kernel_neon_disable(void)
> >>+{
> >>+	preempt_disable();
> >>+	WARN_ON(__this_cpu_read(kernel_neon_busy));
> >>+	__this_cpu_write(kernel_neon_busy, true);
> >
> >Can we do this with one __this_cpu_xchg()?
> 
> I think so.

OK

> >>+}
> >>+
> >>+static void kernel_neon_enable(void)
> >>+{
> >>+	bool busy;
> >>+
> >>+	busy = __this_cpu_xchg(kernel_neon_busy, false);
> >>+	WARN_ON(!busy); /* No matching kernel_neon_disable()? */
> >>+
> >>+	preempt_enable();
> >>+}
> >>+
> >>+#ifdef CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON
> >>+
> >>  /*
> >>   * Kernel-side NEON support functions
> >>   */
> >>@@ -1084,9 +1105,7 @@ void kernel_neon_begin(void)
> >>  	BUG_ON(!may_use_simd());
> >>-	local_bh_disable();
> >>-
> >>-	__this_cpu_write(kernel_neon_busy, true);
> >>+	kernel_neon_disable();
> >>  	/* Save unsaved fpsimd state, if any: */
> >>  	fpsimd_save();
> >>@@ -1094,9 +1113,7 @@ void kernel_neon_begin(void)
> >>  	/* Invalidate any task state remaining in the fpsimd regs: */
> >>  	fpsimd_flush_cpu_state();
> >>-	preempt_disable();
> >>-
> >>-	local_bh_enable();
> >>+	kernel_neon_enable();
> >
> >As you commented in your reply elsewhere, we don't want to call
> >kernel_neon_enable() here.  We need to keep exclusive ownership of the
> >CPU regs to continue until kernel_neon_end() is called.
> 
> I already fixed it in my tree. Thank you for the reminder.

Yes, just confirming my understanding here.

> >Otherwise, this looks reasonable overall.
> >
> >One nice feature of this is that is makes it clearer that the code is
> >grabbing exclusive access to a particular thing (the FPSIMD regs and
> >context metadata), which is not very obvious from the bare
> >local_bh_{disable,enable} that was there previously.
> >
> >When reposting, you should probably rebase on kvmarm/next [1], since
> >there is a minor conflict from the SVE KVM series.  It looks
> >straightforward to fix up though.
> 
> I will have a look.
> 
> >
> >[...]
> >
> >For testing, can we have a test irritator module that does something
> >like hooking the timer softirq with a kprobe and trashing the regs
> >inside kernel_neon_begin()/_end()?
> 
> I will see what I can do.
> 
> >
> >It would be nice to have such a thing upstream, but it's OK to test
> >with local hacks for now.
> >
> >
> >I'm not sure how this patch will affect context switch overhead, so it
> >would be good to see hackbench numbers (or similar).
> 
> I will give a try with hackbench/kernbench.

Thanks.  You can repost the patch before this is done though,
to help move the review forward.

Cheers
---Dave