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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-11 08:27:49 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-11 08:27:49 +0000 |
commit | ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6 (patch) | |
tree | b2d64bc10158fdd5497876388cd68142ca374ed3 /Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst | |
parent | Initial commit. (diff) | |
download | linux-ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6.tar.xz linux-ace9429bb58fd418f0c81d4c2835699bddf6bde6.zip |
Adding upstream version 6.6.15.upstream/6.6.15
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst | 103 |
1 files changed, 103 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst b/Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e4f6972eb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/mm/split_page_table_lock.rst @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +===================== +Split page table lock +===================== + +Originally, mm->page_table_lock spinlock protected all page tables of the +mm_struct. But this approach leads to poor page fault scalability of +multi-threaded applications due high contention on the lock. To improve +scalability, split page table lock was introduced. + +With split page table lock we have separate per-table lock to serialize +access to the table. At the moment we use split lock for PTE and PMD +tables. Access to higher level tables protected by mm->page_table_lock. + +There are helpers to lock/unlock a table and other accessor functions: + + - pte_offset_map_lock() + maps PTE and takes PTE table lock, returns pointer to PTE with + pointer to its PTE table lock, or returns NULL if no PTE table; + - pte_offset_map_nolock() + maps PTE, returns pointer to PTE with pointer to its PTE table + lock (not taken), or returns NULL if no PTE table; + - pte_offset_map() + maps PTE, returns pointer to PTE, or returns NULL if no PTE table; + - pte_unmap() + unmaps PTE table; + - pte_unmap_unlock() + unlocks and unmaps PTE table; + - pte_alloc_map_lock() + allocates PTE table if needed and takes its lock, returns pointer to + PTE with pointer to its lock, or returns NULL if allocation failed; + - pmd_lock() + takes PMD table lock, returns pointer to taken lock; + - pmd_lockptr() + returns pointer to PMD table lock; + +Split page table lock for PTE tables is enabled compile-time if +CONFIG_SPLIT_PTLOCK_CPUS (usually 4) is less or equal to NR_CPUS. +If split lock is disabled, all tables are guarded by mm->page_table_lock. + +Split page table lock for PMD tables is enabled, if it's enabled for PTE +tables and the architecture supports it (see below). + +Hugetlb and split page table lock +================================= + +Hugetlb can support several page sizes. We use split lock only for PMD +level, but not for PUD. + +Hugetlb-specific helpers: + + - huge_pte_lock() + takes pmd split lock for PMD_SIZE page, mm->page_table_lock + otherwise; + - huge_pte_lockptr() + returns pointer to table lock; + +Support of split page table lock by an architecture +=================================================== + +There's no need in special enabling of PTE split page table lock: everything +required is done by pagetable_pte_ctor() and pagetable_pte_dtor(), which +must be called on PTE table allocation / freeing. + +Make sure the architecture doesn't use slab allocator for page table +allocation: slab uses page->slab_cache for its pages. +This field shares storage with page->ptl. + +PMD split lock only makes sense if you have more than two page table +levels. + +PMD split lock enabling requires pagetable_pmd_ctor() call on PMD table +allocation and pagetable_pmd_dtor() on freeing. + +Allocation usually happens in pmd_alloc_one(), freeing in pmd_free() and +pmd_free_tlb(), but make sure you cover all PMD table allocation / freeing +paths: i.e X86_PAE preallocate few PMDs on pgd_alloc(). + +With everything in place you can set CONFIG_ARCH_ENABLE_SPLIT_PMD_PTLOCK. + +NOTE: pagetable_pte_ctor() and pagetable_pmd_ctor() can fail -- it must +be handled properly. + +page->ptl +========= + +page->ptl is used to access split page table lock, where 'page' is struct +page of page containing the table. It shares storage with page->private +(and few other fields in union). + +To avoid increasing size of struct page and have best performance, we use a +trick: + + - if spinlock_t fits into long, we use page->ptr as spinlock, so we + can avoid indirect access and save a cache line. + - if size of spinlock_t is bigger then size of long, we use page->ptl as + pointer to spinlock_t and allocate it dynamically. This allows to use + split lock with enabled DEBUG_SPINLOCK or DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC, but costs + one more cache line for indirect access; + +The spinlock_t allocated in pagetable_pte_ctor() for PTE table and in +pagetable_pmd_ctor() for PMD table. + +Please, never access page->ptl directly -- use appropriate helper. |