diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/timers')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/highres.rst | 250 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/hpet.rst | 30 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/hrtimers.rst | 178 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/index.rst | 22 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/no_hz.rst | 324 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/timekeeping.rst | 180 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/timers-howto.rst | 115 |
7 files changed, 1099 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/timers/highres.rst b/Documentation/timers/highres.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bde5eb7e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/highres.rst @@ -0,0 +1,250 @@ +===================================================== +High resolution timers and dynamic ticks design notes +===================================================== + +Further information can be found in the paper of the OLS 2006 talk "hrtimers +and beyond". The paper is part of the OLS 2006 Proceedings Volume 1, which can +be found on the OLS website: +https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols/2006/ols2006v1-pages-333-346.pdf + +The slides to this talk are available from: +http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~nahum/w6998/papers/ols2006-hrtimers-slides.pdf + +The slides contain five figures (pages 2, 15, 18, 20, 22), which illustrate the +changes in the time(r) related Linux subsystems. Figure #1 (p. 2) shows the +design of the Linux time(r) system before hrtimers and other building blocks +got merged into mainline. + +Note: the paper and the slides are talking about "clock event source", while we +switched to the name "clock event devices" in meantime. + +The design contains the following basic building blocks: + +- hrtimer base infrastructure +- timeofday and clock source management +- clock event management +- high resolution timer functionality +- dynamic ticks + + +hrtimer base infrastructure +--------------------------- + +The hrtimer base infrastructure was merged into the 2.6.16 kernel. Details of +the base implementation are covered in Documentation/timers/hrtimers.rst. See +also figure #2 (OLS slides p. 15) + +The main differences to the timer wheel, which holds the armed timer_list type +timers are: + + - time ordered enqueueing into a rb-tree + - independent of ticks (the processing is based on nanoseconds) + + +timeofday and clock source management +------------------------------------- + +John Stultz's Generic Time Of Day (GTOD) framework moves a large portion of +code out of the architecture-specific areas into a generic management +framework, as illustrated in figure #3 (OLS slides p. 18). The architecture +specific portion is reduced to the low level hardware details of the clock +sources, which are registered in the framework and selected on a quality based +decision. The low level code provides hardware setup and readout routines and +initializes data structures, which are used by the generic time keeping code to +convert the clock ticks to nanosecond based time values. All other time keeping +related functionality is moved into the generic code. The GTOD base patch got +merged into the 2.6.18 kernel. + +Further information about the Generic Time Of Day framework is available in the +OLS 2005 Proceedings Volume 1: + + http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2005/linuxsymposium_procv1.pdf + +The paper "We Are Not Getting Any Younger: A New Approach to Time and +Timers" was written by J. Stultz, D.V. Hart, & N. Aravamudan. + +Figure #3 (OLS slides p.18) illustrates the transformation. + + +clock event management +---------------------- + +While clock sources provide read access to the monotonically increasing time +value, clock event devices are used to schedule the next event +interrupt(s). The next event is currently defined to be periodic, with its +period defined at compile time. The setup and selection of the event device +for various event driven functionalities is hardwired into the architecture +dependent code. This results in duplicated code across all architectures and +makes it extremely difficult to change the configuration of the system to use +event interrupt devices other than those already built into the +architecture. Another implication of the current design is that it is necessary +to touch all the architecture-specific implementations in order to provide new +functionality like high resolution timers or dynamic ticks. + +The clock events subsystem tries to address this problem by providing a generic +solution to manage clock event devices and their usage for the various clock +event driven kernel functionalities. The goal of the clock event subsystem is +to minimize the clock event related architecture dependent code to the pure +hardware related handling and to allow easy addition and utilization of new +clock event devices. It also minimizes the duplicated code across the +architectures as it provides generic functionality down to the interrupt +service handler, which is almost inherently hardware dependent. + +Clock event devices are registered either by the architecture dependent boot +code or at module insertion time. Each clock event device fills a data +structure with clock-specific property parameters and callback functions. The +clock event management decides, by using the specified property parameters, the +set of system functions a clock event device will be used to support. This +includes the distinction of per-CPU and per-system global event devices. + +System-level global event devices are used for the Linux periodic tick. Per-CPU +event devices are used to provide local CPU functionality such as process +accounting, profiling, and high resolution timers. + +The management layer assigns one or more of the following functions to a clock +event device: + + - system global periodic tick (jiffies update) + - cpu local update_process_times + - cpu local profiling + - cpu local next event interrupt (non periodic mode) + +The clock event device delegates the selection of those timer interrupt related +functions completely to the management layer. The clock management layer stores +a function pointer in the device description structure, which has to be called +from the hardware level handler. This removes a lot of duplicated code from the +architecture specific timer interrupt handlers and hands the control over the +clock event devices and the assignment of timer interrupt related functionality +to the core code. + +The clock event layer API is rather small. Aside from the clock event device +registration interface it provides functions to schedule the next event +interrupt, clock event device notification service and support for suspend and +resume. + +The framework adds about 700 lines of code which results in a 2KB increase of +the kernel binary size. The conversion of i386 removes about 100 lines of +code. The binary size decrease is in the range of 400 byte. We believe that the +increase of flexibility and the avoidance of duplicated code across +architectures justifies the slight increase of the binary size. + +The conversion of an architecture has no functional impact, but allows to +utilize the high resolution and dynamic tick functionalities without any change +to the clock event device and timer interrupt code. After the conversion the +enabling of high resolution timers and dynamic ticks is simply provided by +adding the kernel/time/Kconfig file to the architecture specific Kconfig and +adding the dynamic tick specific calls to the idle routine (a total of 3 lines +added to the idle function and the Kconfig file) + +Figure #4 (OLS slides p.20) illustrates the transformation. + + +high resolution timer functionality +----------------------------------- + +During system boot it is not possible to use the high resolution timer +functionality, while making it possible would be difficult and would serve no +useful function. The initialization of the clock event device framework, the +clock source framework (GTOD) and hrtimers itself has to be done and +appropriate clock sources and clock event devices have to be registered before +the high resolution functionality can work. Up to the point where hrtimers are +initialized, the system works in the usual low resolution periodic mode. The +clock source and the clock event device layers provide notification functions +which inform hrtimers about availability of new hardware. hrtimers validates +the usability of the registered clock sources and clock event devices before +switching to high resolution mode. This ensures also that a kernel which is +configured for high resolution timers can run on a system which lacks the +necessary hardware support. + +The high resolution timer code does not support SMP machines which have only +global clock event devices. The support of such hardware would involve IPI +calls when an interrupt happens. The overhead would be much larger than the +benefit. This is the reason why we currently disable high resolution and +dynamic ticks on i386 SMP systems which stop the local APIC in C3 power +state. A workaround is available as an idea, but the problem has not been +tackled yet. + +The time ordered insertion of timers provides all the infrastructure to decide +whether the event device has to be reprogrammed when a timer is added. The +decision is made per timer base and synchronized across per-cpu timer bases in +a support function. The design allows the system to utilize separate per-CPU +clock event devices for the per-CPU timer bases, but currently only one +reprogrammable clock event device per-CPU is utilized. + +When the timer interrupt happens, the next event interrupt handler is called +from the clock event distribution code and moves expired timers from the +red-black tree to a separate double linked list and invokes the softirq +handler. An additional mode field in the hrtimer structure allows the system to +execute callback functions directly from the next event interrupt handler. This +is restricted to code which can safely be executed in the hard interrupt +context. This applies, for example, to the common case of a wakeup function as +used by nanosleep. The advantage of executing the handler in the interrupt +context is the avoidance of up to two context switches - from the interrupted +context to the softirq and to the task which is woken up by the expired +timer. + +Once a system has switched to high resolution mode, the periodic tick is +switched off. This disables the per system global periodic clock event device - +e.g. the PIT on i386 SMP systems. + +The periodic tick functionality is provided by an per-cpu hrtimer. The callback +function is executed in the next event interrupt context and updates jiffies +and calls update_process_times and profiling. The implementation of the hrtimer +based periodic tick is designed to be extended with dynamic tick functionality. +This allows to use a single clock event device to schedule high resolution +timer and periodic events (jiffies tick, profiling, process accounting) on UP +systems. This has been proved to work with the PIT on i386 and the Incrementer +on PPC. + +The softirq for running the hrtimer queues and executing the callbacks has been +separated from the tick bound timer softirq to allow accurate delivery of high +resolution timer signals which are used by itimer and POSIX interval +timers. The execution of this softirq can still be delayed by other softirqs, +but the overall latencies have been significantly improved by this separation. + +Figure #5 (OLS slides p.22) illustrates the transformation. + + +dynamic ticks +------------- + +Dynamic ticks are the logical consequence of the hrtimer based periodic tick +replacement (sched_tick). The functionality of the sched_tick hrtimer is +extended by three functions: + +- hrtimer_stop_sched_tick +- hrtimer_restart_sched_tick +- hrtimer_update_jiffies + +hrtimer_stop_sched_tick() is called when a CPU goes into idle state. The code +evaluates the next scheduled timer event (from both hrtimers and the timer +wheel) and in case that the next event is further away than the next tick it +reprograms the sched_tick to this future event, to allow longer idle sleeps +without worthless interruption by the periodic tick. The function is also +called when an interrupt happens during the idle period, which does not cause a +reschedule. The call is necessary as the interrupt handler might have armed a +new timer whose expiry time is before the time which was identified as the +nearest event in the previous call to hrtimer_stop_sched_tick. + +hrtimer_restart_sched_tick() is called when the CPU leaves the idle state before +it calls schedule(). hrtimer_restart_sched_tick() resumes the periodic tick, +which is kept active until the next call to hrtimer_stop_sched_tick(). + +hrtimer_update_jiffies() is called from irq_enter() when an interrupt happens +in the idle period to make sure that jiffies are up to date and the interrupt +handler has not to deal with an eventually stale jiffy value. + +The dynamic tick feature provides statistical values which are exported to +userspace via /proc/stat and can be made available for enhanced power +management control. + +The implementation leaves room for further development like full tickless +systems, where the time slice is controlled by the scheduler, variable +frequency profiling, and a complete removal of jiffies in the future. + + +Aside the current initial submission of i386 support, the patchset has been +extended to x86_64 and ARM already. Initial (work in progress) support is also +available for MIPS and PowerPC. + + Thomas, Ingo diff --git a/Documentation/timers/hpet.rst b/Documentation/timers/hpet.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c9d05d3ca --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/hpet.rst @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +=========================================== +High Precision Event Timer Driver for Linux +=========================================== + +The High Precision Event Timer (HPET) hardware follows a specification +by Intel and Microsoft, revision 1. + +Each HPET has one fixed-rate counter (at 10+ MHz, hence "High Precision") +and up to 32 comparators. Normally three or more comparators are provided, +each of which can generate oneshot interrupts and at least one of which has +additional hardware to support periodic interrupts. The comparators are +also called "timers", which can be misleading since usually timers are +independent of each other ... these share a counter, complicating resets. + +HPET devices can support two interrupt routing modes. In one mode, the +comparators are additional interrupt sources with no particular system +role. Many x86 BIOS writers don't route HPET interrupts at all, which +prevents use of that mode. They support the other "legacy replacement" +mode where the first two comparators block interrupts from 8254 timers +and from the RTC. + +The driver supports detection of HPET driver allocation and initialization +of the HPET before the driver module_init routine is called. This enables +platform code which uses timer 0 or 1 as the main timer to intercept HPET +initialization. An example of this initialization can be found in +arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c. + +The driver provides a userspace API which resembles the API found in the +RTC driver framework. An example user space program is provided in +file:samples/timers/hpet_example.c diff --git a/Documentation/timers/hrtimers.rst b/Documentation/timers/hrtimers.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c1c20a693 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/hrtimers.rst @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +====================================================== +hrtimers - subsystem for high-resolution kernel timers +====================================================== + +This patch introduces a new subsystem for high-resolution kernel timers. + +One might ask the question: we already have a timer subsystem +(kernel/timers.c), why do we need two timer subsystems? After a lot of +back and forth trying to integrate high-resolution and high-precision +features into the existing timer framework, and after testing various +such high-resolution timer implementations in practice, we came to the +conclusion that the timer wheel code is fundamentally not suitable for +such an approach. We initially didn't believe this ('there must be a way +to solve this'), and spent a considerable effort trying to integrate +things into the timer wheel, but we failed. In hindsight, there are +several reasons why such integration is hard/impossible: + +- the forced handling of low-resolution and high-resolution timers in + the same way leads to a lot of compromises, macro magic and #ifdef + mess. The timers.c code is very "tightly coded" around jiffies and + 32-bitness assumptions, and has been honed and micro-optimized for a + relatively narrow use case (jiffies in a relatively narrow HZ range) + for many years - and thus even small extensions to it easily break + the wheel concept, leading to even worse compromises. The timer wheel + code is very good and tight code, there's zero problems with it in its + current usage - but it is simply not suitable to be extended for + high-res timers. + +- the unpredictable [O(N)] overhead of cascading leads to delays which + necessitate a more complex handling of high resolution timers, which + in turn decreases robustness. Such a design still leads to rather large + timing inaccuracies. Cascading is a fundamental property of the timer + wheel concept, it cannot be 'designed out' without inevitably + degrading other portions of the timers.c code in an unacceptable way. + +- the implementation of the current posix-timer subsystem on top of + the timer wheel has already introduced a quite complex handling of + the required readjusting of absolute CLOCK_REALTIME timers at + settimeofday or NTP time - further underlying our experience by + example: that the timer wheel data structure is too rigid for high-res + timers. + +- the timer wheel code is most optimal for use cases which can be + identified as "timeouts". Such timeouts are usually set up to cover + error conditions in various I/O paths, such as networking and block + I/O. The vast majority of those timers never expire and are rarely + recascaded because the expected correct event arrives in time so they + can be removed from the timer wheel before any further processing of + them becomes necessary. Thus the users of these timeouts can accept + the granularity and precision tradeoffs of the timer wheel, and + largely expect the timer subsystem to have near-zero overhead. + Accurate timing for them is not a core purpose - in fact most of the + timeout values used are ad-hoc. For them it is at most a necessary + evil to guarantee the processing of actual timeout completions + (because most of the timeouts are deleted before completion), which + should thus be as cheap and unintrusive as possible. + +The primary users of precision timers are user-space applications that +utilize nanosleep, posix-timers and itimer interfaces. Also, in-kernel +users like drivers and subsystems which require precise timed events +(e.g. multimedia) can benefit from the availability of a separate +high-resolution timer subsystem as well. + +While this subsystem does not offer high-resolution clock sources just +yet, the hrtimer subsystem can be easily extended with high-resolution +clock capabilities, and patches for that exist and are maturing quickly. +The increasing demand for realtime and multimedia applications along +with other potential users for precise timers gives another reason to +separate the "timeout" and "precise timer" subsystems. + +Another potential benefit is that such a separation allows even more +special-purpose optimization of the existing timer wheel for the low +resolution and low precision use cases - once the precision-sensitive +APIs are separated from the timer wheel and are migrated over to +hrtimers. E.g. we could decrease the frequency of the timeout subsystem +from 250 Hz to 100 HZ (or even smaller). + +hrtimer subsystem implementation details +---------------------------------------- + +the basic design considerations were: + +- simplicity + +- data structure not bound to jiffies or any other granularity. All the + kernel logic works at 64-bit nanoseconds resolution - no compromises. + +- simplification of existing, timing related kernel code + +another basic requirement was the immediate enqueueing and ordering of +timers at activation time. After looking at several possible solutions +such as radix trees and hashes, we chose the red black tree as the basic +data structure. Rbtrees are available as a library in the kernel and are +used in various performance-critical areas of e.g. memory management and +file systems. The rbtree is solely used for time sorted ordering, while +a separate list is used to give the expiry code fast access to the +queued timers, without having to walk the rbtree. + +(This separate list is also useful for later when we'll introduce +high-resolution clocks, where we need separate pending and expired +queues while keeping the time-order intact.) + +Time-ordered enqueueing is not purely for the purposes of +high-resolution clocks though, it also simplifies the handling of +absolute timers based on a low-resolution CLOCK_REALTIME. The existing +implementation needed to keep an extra list of all armed absolute +CLOCK_REALTIME timers along with complex locking. In case of +settimeofday and NTP, all the timers (!) had to be dequeued, the +time-changing code had to fix them up one by one, and all of them had to +be enqueued again. The time-ordered enqueueing and the storage of the +expiry time in absolute time units removes all this complex and poorly +scaling code from the posix-timer implementation - the clock can simply +be set without having to touch the rbtree. This also makes the handling +of posix-timers simpler in general. + +The locking and per-CPU behavior of hrtimers was mostly taken from the +existing timer wheel code, as it is mature and well suited. Sharing code +was not really a win, due to the different data structures. Also, the +hrtimer functions now have clearer behavior and clearer names - such as +hrtimer_try_to_cancel() and hrtimer_cancel() [which are roughly +equivalent to del_timer() and del_timer_sync()] - so there's no direct +1:1 mapping between them on the algorithmic level, and thus no real +potential for code sharing either. + +Basic data types: every time value, absolute or relative, is in a +special nanosecond-resolution type: ktime_t. The kernel-internal +representation of ktime_t values and operations is implemented via +macros and inline functions, and can be switched between a "hybrid +union" type and a plain "scalar" 64bit nanoseconds representation (at +compile time). The hybrid union type optimizes time conversions on 32bit +CPUs. This build-time-selectable ktime_t storage format was implemented +to avoid the performance impact of 64-bit multiplications and divisions +on 32bit CPUs. Such operations are frequently necessary to convert +between the storage formats provided by kernel and userspace interfaces +and the internal time format. (See include/linux/ktime.h for further +details.) + +hrtimers - rounding of timer values +----------------------------------- + +the hrtimer code will round timer events to lower-resolution clocks +because it has to. Otherwise it will do no artificial rounding at all. + +one question is, what resolution value should be returned to the user by +the clock_getres() interface. This will return whatever real resolution +a given clock has - be it low-res, high-res, or artificially-low-res. + +hrtimers - testing and verification +----------------------------------- + +We used the high-resolution clock subsystem ontop of hrtimers to verify +the hrtimer implementation details in praxis, and we also ran the posix +timer tests in order to ensure specification compliance. We also ran +tests on low-resolution clocks. + +The hrtimer patch converts the following kernel functionality to use +hrtimers: + + - nanosleep + - itimers + - posix-timers + +The conversion of nanosleep and posix-timers enabled the unification of +nanosleep and clock_nanosleep. + +The code was successfully compiled for the following platforms: + + i386, x86_64, ARM, PPC, PPC64, IA64 + +The code was run-tested on the following platforms: + + i386(UP/SMP), x86_64(UP/SMP), ARM, PPC + +hrtimers were also integrated into the -rt tree, along with a +hrtimers-based high-resolution clock implementation, so the hrtimers +code got a healthy amount of testing and use in practice. + + Thomas Gleixner, Ingo Molnar diff --git a/Documentation/timers/index.rst b/Documentation/timers/index.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..df510ad0c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/index.rst @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +====== +timers +====== + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 1 + + highres + hpet + hrtimers + no_hz + timekeeping + timers-howto + +.. only:: subproject and html + + Indices + ======= + + * :ref:`genindex` diff --git a/Documentation/timers/no_hz.rst b/Documentation/timers/no_hz.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c4c70e1aa --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/no_hz.rst @@ -0,0 +1,324 @@ +====================================== +NO_HZ: Reducing Scheduling-Clock Ticks +====================================== + + +This document describes Kconfig options and boot parameters that can +reduce the number of scheduling-clock interrupts, thereby improving energy +efficiency and reducing OS jitter. Reducing OS jitter is important for +some types of computationally intensive high-performance computing (HPC) +applications and for real-time applications. + +There are three main ways of managing scheduling-clock interrupts +(also known as "scheduling-clock ticks" or simply "ticks"): + +1. Never omit scheduling-clock ticks (CONFIG_HZ_PERIODIC=y or + CONFIG_NO_HZ=n for older kernels). You normally will -not- + want to choose this option. + +2. Omit scheduling-clock ticks on idle CPUs (CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y or + CONFIG_NO_HZ=y for older kernels). This is the most common + approach, and should be the default. + +3. Omit scheduling-clock ticks on CPUs that are either idle or that + have only one runnable task (CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y). Unless you + are running realtime applications or certain types of HPC + workloads, you will normally -not- want this option. + +These three cases are described in the following three sections, followed +by a third section on RCU-specific considerations, a fourth section +discussing testing, and a fifth and final section listing known issues. + + +Never Omit Scheduling-Clock Ticks +================================= + +Very old versions of Linux from the 1990s and the very early 2000s +are incapable of omitting scheduling-clock ticks. It turns out that +there are some situations where this old-school approach is still the +right approach, for example, in heavy workloads with lots of tasks +that use short bursts of CPU, where there are very frequent idle +periods, but where these idle periods are also quite short (tens or +hundreds of microseconds). For these types of workloads, scheduling +clock interrupts will normally be delivered any way because there +will frequently be multiple runnable tasks per CPU. In these cases, +attempting to turn off the scheduling clock interrupt will have no effect +other than increasing the overhead of switching to and from idle and +transitioning between user and kernel execution. + +This mode of operation can be selected using CONFIG_HZ_PERIODIC=y (or +CONFIG_NO_HZ=n for older kernels). + +However, if you are instead running a light workload with long idle +periods, failing to omit scheduling-clock interrupts will result in +excessive power consumption. This is especially bad on battery-powered +devices, where it results in extremely short battery lifetimes. If you +are running light workloads, you should therefore read the following +section. + +In addition, if you are running either a real-time workload or an HPC +workload with short iterations, the scheduling-clock interrupts can +degrade your applications performance. If this describes your workload, +you should read the following two sections. + + +Omit Scheduling-Clock Ticks For Idle CPUs +========================================= + +If a CPU is idle, there is little point in sending it a scheduling-clock +interrupt. After all, the primary purpose of a scheduling-clock interrupt +is to force a busy CPU to shift its attention among multiple duties, +and an idle CPU has no duties to shift its attention among. + +The CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y Kconfig option causes the kernel to avoid sending +scheduling-clock interrupts to idle CPUs, which is critically important +both to battery-powered devices and to highly virtualized mainframes. +A battery-powered device running a CONFIG_HZ_PERIODIC=y kernel would +drain its battery very quickly, easily 2-3 times as fast as would the +same device running a CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y kernel. A mainframe running +1,500 OS instances might find that half of its CPU time was consumed by +unnecessary scheduling-clock interrupts. In these situations, there +is strong motivation to avoid sending scheduling-clock interrupts to +idle CPUs. That said, dyntick-idle mode is not free: + +1. It increases the number of instructions executed on the path + to and from the idle loop. + +2. On many architectures, dyntick-idle mode also increases the + number of expensive clock-reprogramming operations. + +Therefore, systems with aggressive real-time response constraints often +run CONFIG_HZ_PERIODIC=y kernels (or CONFIG_NO_HZ=n for older kernels) +in order to avoid degrading from-idle transition latencies. + +An idle CPU that is not receiving scheduling-clock interrupts is said to +be "dyntick-idle", "in dyntick-idle mode", "in nohz mode", or "running +tickless". The remainder of this document will use "dyntick-idle mode". + +There is also a boot parameter "nohz=" that can be used to disable +dyntick-idle mode in CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y kernels by specifying "nohz=off". +By default, CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y kernels boot with "nohz=on", enabling +dyntick-idle mode. + + +Omit Scheduling-Clock Ticks For CPUs With Only One Runnable Task +================================================================ + +If a CPU has only one runnable task, there is little point in sending it +a scheduling-clock interrupt because there is no other task to switch to. +Note that omitting scheduling-clock ticks for CPUs with only one runnable +task implies also omitting them for idle CPUs. + +The CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y Kconfig option causes the kernel to avoid +sending scheduling-clock interrupts to CPUs with a single runnable task, +and such CPUs are said to be "adaptive-ticks CPUs". This is important +for applications with aggressive real-time response constraints because +it allows them to improve their worst-case response times by the maximum +duration of a scheduling-clock interrupt. It is also important for +computationally intensive short-iteration workloads: If any CPU is +delayed during a given iteration, all the other CPUs will be forced to +wait idle while the delayed CPU finishes. Thus, the delay is multiplied +by one less than the number of CPUs. In these situations, there is +again strong motivation to avoid sending scheduling-clock interrupts. + +By default, no CPU will be an adaptive-ticks CPU. The "nohz_full=" +boot parameter specifies the adaptive-ticks CPUs. For example, +"nohz_full=1,6-8" says that CPUs 1, 6, 7, and 8 are to be adaptive-ticks +CPUs. Note that you are prohibited from marking all of the CPUs as +adaptive-tick CPUs: At least one non-adaptive-tick CPU must remain +online to handle timekeeping tasks in order to ensure that system +calls like gettimeofday() returns accurate values on adaptive-tick CPUs. +(This is not an issue for CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE=y because there are no running +user processes to observe slight drifts in clock rate.) Therefore, the +boot CPU is prohibited from entering adaptive-ticks mode. Specifying a +"nohz_full=" mask that includes the boot CPU will result in a boot-time +error message, and the boot CPU will be removed from the mask. Note that +this means that your system must have at least two CPUs in order for +CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y to do anything for you. + +Finally, adaptive-ticks CPUs must have their RCU callbacks offloaded. +This is covered in the "RCU IMPLICATIONS" section below. + +Normally, a CPU remains in adaptive-ticks mode as long as possible. +In particular, transitioning to kernel mode does not automatically change +the mode. Instead, the CPU will exit adaptive-ticks mode only if needed, +for example, if that CPU enqueues an RCU callback. + +Just as with dyntick-idle mode, the benefits of adaptive-tick mode do +not come for free: + +1. CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL selects CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON, so you cannot run + adaptive ticks without also running dyntick idle. This dependency + extends down into the implementation, so that all of the costs + of CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE are also incurred by CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL. + +2. The user/kernel transitions are slightly more expensive due + to the need to inform kernel subsystems (such as RCU) about + the change in mode. + +3. POSIX CPU timers prevent CPUs from entering adaptive-tick mode. + Real-time applications needing to take actions based on CPU time + consumption need to use other means of doing so. + +4. If there are more perf events pending than the hardware can + accommodate, they are normally round-robined so as to collect + all of them over time. Adaptive-tick mode may prevent this + round-robining from happening. This will likely be fixed by + preventing CPUs with large numbers of perf events pending from + entering adaptive-tick mode. + +5. Scheduler statistics for adaptive-tick CPUs may be computed + slightly differently than those for non-adaptive-tick CPUs. + This might in turn perturb load-balancing of real-time tasks. + +Although improvements are expected over time, adaptive ticks is quite +useful for many types of real-time and compute-intensive applications. +However, the drawbacks listed above mean that adaptive ticks should not +(yet) be enabled by default. + + +RCU Implications +================ + +There are situations in which idle CPUs cannot be permitted to +enter either dyntick-idle mode or adaptive-tick mode, the most +common being when that CPU has RCU callbacks pending. + +The CONFIG_RCU_FAST_NO_HZ=y Kconfig option may be used to cause such CPUs +to enter dyntick-idle mode or adaptive-tick mode anyway. In this case, +a timer will awaken these CPUs every four jiffies in order to ensure +that the RCU callbacks are processed in a timely fashion. + +Another approach is to offload RCU callback processing to "rcuo" kthreads +using the CONFIG_RCU_NOCB_CPU=y Kconfig option. The specific CPUs to +offload may be selected using The "rcu_nocbs=" kernel boot parameter, +which takes a comma-separated list of CPUs and CPU ranges, for example, +"1,3-5" selects CPUs 1, 3, 4, and 5. + +The offloaded CPUs will never queue RCU callbacks, and therefore RCU +never prevents offloaded CPUs from entering either dyntick-idle mode +or adaptive-tick mode. That said, note that it is up to userspace to +pin the "rcuo" kthreads to specific CPUs if desired. Otherwise, the +scheduler will decide where to run them, which might or might not be +where you want them to run. + + +Testing +======= + +So you enable all the OS-jitter features described in this document, +but do not see any change in your workload's behavior. Is this because +your workload isn't affected that much by OS jitter, or is it because +something else is in the way? This section helps answer this question +by providing a simple OS-jitter test suite, which is available on branch +master of the following git archive: + +git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/frederic/dynticks-testing.git + +Clone this archive and follow the instructions in the README file. +This test procedure will produce a trace that will allow you to evaluate +whether or not you have succeeded in removing OS jitter from your system. +If this trace shows that you have removed OS jitter as much as is +possible, then you can conclude that your workload is not all that +sensitive to OS jitter. + +Note: this test requires that your system have at least two CPUs. +We do not currently have a good way to remove OS jitter from single-CPU +systems. + + +Known Issues +============ + +* Dyntick-idle slows transitions to and from idle slightly. + In practice, this has not been a problem except for the most + aggressive real-time workloads, which have the option of disabling + dyntick-idle mode, an option that most of them take. However, + some workloads will no doubt want to use adaptive ticks to + eliminate scheduling-clock interrupt latencies. Here are some + options for these workloads: + + a. Use PMQOS from userspace to inform the kernel of your + latency requirements (preferred). + + b. On x86 systems, use the "idle=mwait" boot parameter. + + c. On x86 systems, use the "intel_idle.max_cstate=" to limit + ` the maximum C-state depth. + + d. On x86 systems, use the "idle=poll" boot parameter. + However, please note that use of this parameter can cause + your CPU to overheat, which may cause thermal throttling + to degrade your latencies -- and that this degradation can + be even worse than that of dyntick-idle. Furthermore, + this parameter effectively disables Turbo Mode on Intel + CPUs, which can significantly reduce maximum performance. + +* Adaptive-ticks slows user/kernel transitions slightly. + This is not expected to be a problem for computationally intensive + workloads, which have few such transitions. Careful benchmarking + will be required to determine whether or not other workloads + are significantly affected by this effect. + +* Adaptive-ticks does not do anything unless there is only one + runnable task for a given CPU, even though there are a number + of other situations where the scheduling-clock tick is not + needed. To give but one example, consider a CPU that has one + runnable high-priority SCHED_FIFO task and an arbitrary number + of low-priority SCHED_OTHER tasks. In this case, the CPU is + required to run the SCHED_FIFO task until it either blocks or + some other higher-priority task awakens on (or is assigned to) + this CPU, so there is no point in sending a scheduling-clock + interrupt to this CPU. However, the current implementation + nevertheless sends scheduling-clock interrupts to CPUs having a + single runnable SCHED_FIFO task and multiple runnable SCHED_OTHER + tasks, even though these interrupts are unnecessary. + + And even when there are multiple runnable tasks on a given CPU, + there is little point in interrupting that CPU until the current + running task's timeslice expires, which is almost always way + longer than the time of the next scheduling-clock interrupt. + + Better handling of these sorts of situations is future work. + +* A reboot is required to reconfigure both adaptive idle and RCU + callback offloading. Runtime reconfiguration could be provided + if needed, however, due to the complexity of reconfiguring RCU at + runtime, there would need to be an earthshakingly good reason. + Especially given that you have the straightforward option of + simply offloading RCU callbacks from all CPUs and pinning them + where you want them whenever you want them pinned. + +* Additional configuration is required to deal with other sources + of OS jitter, including interrupts and system-utility tasks + and processes. This configuration normally involves binding + interrupts and tasks to particular CPUs. + +* Some sources of OS jitter can currently be eliminated only by + constraining the workload. For example, the only way to eliminate + OS jitter due to global TLB shootdowns is to avoid the unmapping + operations (such as kernel module unload operations) that + result in these shootdowns. For another example, page faults + and TLB misses can be reduced (and in some cases eliminated) by + using huge pages and by constraining the amount of memory used + by the application. Pre-faulting the working set can also be + helpful, especially when combined with the mlock() and mlockall() + system calls. + +* Unless all CPUs are idle, at least one CPU must keep the + scheduling-clock interrupt going in order to support accurate + timekeeping. + +* If there might potentially be some adaptive-ticks CPUs, there + will be at least one CPU keeping the scheduling-clock interrupt + going, even if all CPUs are otherwise idle. + + Better handling of this situation is ongoing work. + +* Some process-handling operations still require the occasional + scheduling-clock tick. These operations include calculating CPU + load, maintaining sched average, computing CFS entity vruntime, + computing avenrun, and carrying out load balancing. They are + currently accommodated by scheduling-clock tick every second + or so. On-going work will eliminate the need even for these + infrequent scheduling-clock ticks. diff --git a/Documentation/timers/timekeeping.rst b/Documentation/timers/timekeeping.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f83e98852 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/timekeeping.rst @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +=========================================================== +Clock sources, Clock events, sched_clock() and delay timers +=========================================================== + +This document tries to briefly explain some basic kernel timekeeping +abstractions. It partly pertains to the drivers usually found in +drivers/clocksource in the kernel tree, but the code may be spread out +across the kernel. + +If you grep through the kernel source you will find a number of architecture- +specific implementations of clock sources, clockevents and several likewise +architecture-specific overrides of the sched_clock() function and some +delay timers. + +To provide timekeeping for your platform, the clock source provides +the basic timeline, whereas clock events shoot interrupts on certain points +on this timeline, providing facilities such as high-resolution timers. +sched_clock() is used for scheduling and timestamping, and delay timers +provide an accurate delay source using hardware counters. + + +Clock sources +------------- + +The purpose of the clock source is to provide a timeline for the system that +tells you where you are in time. For example issuing the command 'date' on +a Linux system will eventually read the clock source to determine exactly +what time it is. + +Typically the clock source is a monotonic, atomic counter which will provide +n bits which count from 0 to (2^n)-1 and then wraps around to 0 and start over. +It will ideally NEVER stop ticking as long as the system is running. It +may stop during system suspend. + +The clock source shall have as high resolution as possible, and the frequency +shall be as stable and correct as possible as compared to a real-world wall +clock. It should not move unpredictably back and forth in time or miss a few +cycles here and there. + +It must be immune to the kind of effects that occur in hardware where e.g. +the counter register is read in two phases on the bus lowest 16 bits first +and the higher 16 bits in a second bus cycle with the counter bits +potentially being updated in between leading to the risk of very strange +values from the counter. + +When the wall-clock accuracy of the clock source isn't satisfactory, there +are various quirks and layers in the timekeeping code for e.g. synchronizing +the user-visible time to RTC clocks in the system or against networked time +servers using NTP, but all they do basically is update an offset against +the clock source, which provides the fundamental timeline for the system. +These measures does not affect the clock source per se, they only adapt the +system to the shortcomings of it. + +The clock source struct shall provide means to translate the provided counter +into a nanosecond value as an unsigned long long (unsigned 64 bit) number. +Since this operation may be invoked very often, doing this in a strict +mathematical sense is not desirable: instead the number is taken as close as +possible to a nanosecond value using only the arithmetic operations +multiply and shift, so in clocksource_cyc2ns() you find: + + ns ~= (clocksource * mult) >> shift + +You will find a number of helper functions in the clock source code intended +to aid in providing these mult and shift values, such as +clocksource_khz2mult(), clocksource_hz2mult() that help determine the +mult factor from a fixed shift, and clocksource_register_hz() and +clocksource_register_khz() which will help out assigning both shift and mult +factors using the frequency of the clock source as the only input. + +For real simple clock sources accessed from a single I/O memory location +there is nowadays even clocksource_mmio_init() which will take a memory +location, bit width, a parameter telling whether the counter in the +register counts up or down, and the timer clock rate, and then conjure all +necessary parameters. + +Since a 32-bit counter at say 100 MHz will wrap around to zero after some 43 +seconds, the code handling the clock source will have to compensate for this. +That is the reason why the clock source struct also contains a 'mask' +member telling how many bits of the source are valid. This way the timekeeping +code knows when the counter will wrap around and can insert the necessary +compensation code on both sides of the wrap point so that the system timeline +remains monotonic. + + +Clock events +------------ + +Clock events are the conceptual reverse of clock sources: they take a +desired time specification value and calculate the values to poke into +hardware timer registers. + +Clock events are orthogonal to clock sources. The same hardware +and register range may be used for the clock event, but it is essentially +a different thing. The hardware driving clock events has to be able to +fire interrupts, so as to trigger events on the system timeline. On an SMP +system, it is ideal (and customary) to have one such event driving timer per +CPU core, so that each core can trigger events independently of any other +core. + +You will notice that the clock event device code is based on the same basic +idea about translating counters to nanoseconds using mult and shift +arithmetic, and you find the same family of helper functions again for +assigning these values. The clock event driver does not need a 'mask' +attribute however: the system will not try to plan events beyond the time +horizon of the clock event. + + +sched_clock() +------------- + +In addition to the clock sources and clock events there is a special weak +function in the kernel called sched_clock(). This function shall return the +number of nanoseconds since the system was started. An architecture may or +may not provide an implementation of sched_clock() on its own. If a local +implementation is not provided, the system jiffy counter will be used as +sched_clock(). + +As the name suggests, sched_clock() is used for scheduling the system, +determining the absolute timeslice for a certain process in the CFS scheduler +for example. It is also used for printk timestamps when you have selected to +include time information in printk for things like bootcharts. + +Compared to clock sources, sched_clock() has to be very fast: it is called +much more often, especially by the scheduler. If you have to do trade-offs +between accuracy compared to the clock source, you may sacrifice accuracy +for speed in sched_clock(). It however requires some of the same basic +characteristics as the clock source, i.e. it should be monotonic. + +The sched_clock() function may wrap only on unsigned long long boundaries, +i.e. after 64 bits. Since this is a nanosecond value this will mean it wraps +after circa 585 years. (For most practical systems this means "never".) + +If an architecture does not provide its own implementation of this function, +it will fall back to using jiffies, making its maximum resolution 1/HZ of the +jiffy frequency for the architecture. This will affect scheduling accuracy +and will likely show up in system benchmarks. + +The clock driving sched_clock() may stop or reset to zero during system +suspend/sleep. This does not matter to the function it serves of scheduling +events on the system. However it may result in interesting timestamps in +printk(). + +The sched_clock() function should be callable in any context, IRQ- and +NMI-safe and return a sane value in any context. + +Some architectures may have a limited set of time sources and lack a nice +counter to derive a 64-bit nanosecond value, so for example on the ARM +architecture, special helper functions have been created to provide a +sched_clock() nanosecond base from a 16- or 32-bit counter. Sometimes the +same counter that is also used as clock source is used for this purpose. + +On SMP systems, it is crucial for performance that sched_clock() can be called +independently on each CPU without any synchronization performance hits. +Some hardware (such as the x86 TSC) will cause the sched_clock() function to +drift between the CPUs on the system. The kernel can work around this by +enabling the CONFIG_HAVE_UNSTABLE_SCHED_CLOCK option. This is another aspect +that makes sched_clock() different from the ordinary clock source. + + +Delay timers (some architectures only) +-------------------------------------- + +On systems with variable CPU frequency, the various kernel delay() functions +will sometimes behave strangely. Basically these delays usually use a hard +loop to delay a certain number of jiffy fractions using a "lpj" (loops per +jiffy) value, calibrated on boot. + +Let's hope that your system is running on maximum frequency when this value +is calibrated: as an effect when the frequency is geared down to half the +full frequency, any delay() will be twice as long. Usually this does not +hurt, as you're commonly requesting that amount of delay *or more*. But +basically the semantics are quite unpredictable on such systems. + +Enter timer-based delays. Using these, a timer read may be used instead of +a hard-coded loop for providing the desired delay. + +This is done by declaring a struct delay_timer and assigning the appropriate +function pointers and rate settings for this delay timer. + +This is available on some architectures like OpenRISC or ARM. diff --git a/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.rst b/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..afb0a43b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.rst @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +=================================================================== +delays - Information on the various kernel delay / sleep mechanisms +=================================================================== + +This document seeks to answer the common question: "What is the +RightWay (TM) to insert a delay?" + +This question is most often faced by driver writers who have to +deal with hardware delays and who may not be the most intimately +familiar with the inner workings of the Linux Kernel. + + +Inserting Delays +---------------- + +The first, and most important, question you need to ask is "Is my +code in an atomic context?" This should be followed closely by "Does +it really need to delay in atomic context?" If so... + +ATOMIC CONTEXT: + You must use the `*delay` family of functions. These + functions use the jiffie estimation of clock speed + and will busy wait for enough loop cycles to achieve + the desired delay: + + ndelay(unsigned long nsecs) + udelay(unsigned long usecs) + mdelay(unsigned long msecs) + + udelay is the generally preferred API; ndelay-level + precision may not actually exist on many non-PC devices. + + mdelay is macro wrapper around udelay, to account for + possible overflow when passing large arguments to udelay. + In general, use of mdelay is discouraged and code should + be refactored to allow for the use of msleep. + +NON-ATOMIC CONTEXT: + You should use the `*sleep[_range]` family of functions. + There are a few more options here, while any of them may + work correctly, using the "right" sleep function will + help the scheduler, power management, and just make your + driver better :) + + -- Backed by busy-wait loop: + + udelay(unsigned long usecs) + + -- Backed by hrtimers: + + usleep_range(unsigned long min, unsigned long max) + + -- Backed by jiffies / legacy_timers + + msleep(unsigned long msecs) + msleep_interruptible(unsigned long msecs) + + Unlike the `*delay` family, the underlying mechanism + driving each of these calls varies, thus there are + quirks you should be aware of. + + + SLEEPING FOR "A FEW" USECS ( < ~10us? ): + * Use udelay + + - Why not usleep? + On slower systems, (embedded, OR perhaps a speed- + stepped PC!) the overhead of setting up the hrtimers + for usleep *may* not be worth it. Such an evaluation + will obviously depend on your specific situation, but + it is something to be aware of. + + SLEEPING FOR ~USECS OR SMALL MSECS ( 10us - 20ms): + * Use usleep_range + + - Why not msleep for (1ms - 20ms)? + Explained originally here: + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/8/3/250 + + msleep(1~20) may not do what the caller intends, and + will often sleep longer (~20 ms actual sleep for any + value given in the 1~20ms range). In many cases this + is not the desired behavior. + + - Why is there no "usleep" / What is a good range? + Since usleep_range is built on top of hrtimers, the + wakeup will be very precise (ish), thus a simple + usleep function would likely introduce a large number + of undesired interrupts. + + With the introduction of a range, the scheduler is + free to coalesce your wakeup with any other wakeup + that may have happened for other reasons, or at the + worst case, fire an interrupt for your upper bound. + + The larger a range you supply, the greater a chance + that you will not trigger an interrupt; this should + be balanced with what is an acceptable upper bound on + delay / performance for your specific code path. Exact + tolerances here are very situation specific, thus it + is left to the caller to determine a reasonable range. + + SLEEPING FOR LARGER MSECS ( 10ms+ ) + * Use msleep or possibly msleep_interruptible + + - What's the difference? + msleep sets the current task to TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE + whereas msleep_interruptible sets the current task to + TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE before scheduling the sleep. In + short, the difference is whether the sleep can be ended + early by a signal. In general, just use msleep unless + you know you have a need for the interruptible variant. + + FLEXIBLE SLEEPING (any delay, uninterruptible) + * Use fsleep |