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Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-block] [PATCH 14/17] block: optimize access to re


From: Stefan Hajnoczi
Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-block] [PATCH 14/17] block: optimize access to reqs_lock
Date: Mon, 8 May 2017 12:21:21 -0400
User-agent: Mutt/1.8.0 (2017-02-23)

On Fri, May 05, 2017 at 12:45:38PM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> 
> 
> On 05/05/2017 12:25, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> > On Thu, May 04, 2017 at 06:06:39PM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> >> On 04/05/2017 16:59, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> >>> On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 02:00:55PM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> >>>> Hot path reqs_lock critical sections are very small; the only large 
> >>>> critical
> >>>> sections happen when a request waits for serialising requests, and these
> >>>> should never happen in usual circumstances.
> >>>>
> >>>> We do not want these small critical sections to yield in any case,
> >>>> which calls for using a spinlock while writing the list.
> >>>
> >>> Is this patch purely an optimization?
> >>
> >> Yes, it is, and pretty much a no-op until we have true multiqueue.  But
> >> I expect it to have a significant effect for multiqueue.
> >>
> >>> I'm hesitant about using spinlocks in userspace.  There are cases where
> >>> the thread is descheduled that are beyond our control.  Nested virt will
> >>> probably make things worse.  People have been optimizing and trying
> >>> paravirt approaches to kernel spinlocks for these reasons for years.
> >>
> >> This is true, but here we're talking about a 5-10 instruction window for
> >> preemption; it matches the usage of spinlocks in other parts of QEMU.
> > 
> > Only util/qht.c uses spinlocks, it's not a widely used primitive.
> 
> Right, but the idea is the same---very short, heavy and
> performance-critical cases use spinlocks.  (util/qht.c is used heavily
> in TCG mode).
> 
> >> It is efficient when there is no contention, but when there is, the
> >> latency goes up by several orders of magnitude.
> > 
> > Doesn't glibc spin for a while before waiting on the futex?  i.e. the
> > best of both worlds.
> 
> You have to specify that manually with pthread_mutexattr_settype(...,
> PTHRED_MUTEX_ADAPTIVE_NP).  It is not enabled by default because IIUC
> the adaptive one doesn't support pthread_mutex_timedlock.

If you want to use spinlocks in QEMU please document strict rules that
ensure they will be used safely.  For example, I'd be comfortable with:

Spinlock regions may only call functions in the same source file or
functions explicitly documented as spinlock-safe.  Only memory accesses
and computation may be performed; do not make system calls or invoke
library functions.

Stefan

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