[PATCH v6 3/5] lazy tlb: shoot lazies, non-refcounting lazy tlb mm reference handling scheme

[Nicholas Piggin]

On big systems, the mm refcount can become highly contented when doing
a lot of context switching with threaded applications (particularly
switching between the idle thread and an application thread).

Abandoning lazy tlb slows switching down quite a bit in the important
user->idle->user cases, so instead implement a non-refcounted scheme
that causes __mmdrop() to IPI all CPUs in the mm_cpumask and shoot down
any remaining lazy ones.

Shootdown IPIs cost could be an issue, but they have not been observed
to be a serious problem with this scheme, because short-lived processes
tend not to migrate CPUs much, therefore they don't get much chance to
leave lazy tlb mm references on remote CPUs. There are a lot of options
to reduce them if necessary.

Signed-off-by: Nicholas Piggin <npiggin at gmail.com>
---
 arch/Kconfig  | 15 ++++++++++++
 kernel/fork.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 80 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig
index b07d36f08fea..f7da34e4bc62 100644
--- a/arch/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/Kconfig
@@ -481,6 +481,21 @@ config ARCH_WANT_IRQS_OFF_ACTIVATE_MM
 # already).
 config MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT
 	def_bool y
+	depends on !MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN
+
+# This option allows MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT=n. It ensures no CPUs are using an
+# mm as a lazy tlb beyond its last reference count, by shooting down these
+# users before the mm is deallocated. __mmdrop() first IPIs all CPUs that may
+# be using the mm as a lazy tlb, so that they may switch themselves to using
+# init_mm for their active mm. mm_cpumask(mm) is used to determine which CPUs
+# may be using mm as a lazy tlb mm.
+#
+# To implement this, an arch *must*:
+# - At the time of the final mmdrop of the mm, ensure mm_cpumask(mm) contains
+#   at least all possible CPUs in which the mm is lazy.
+# - It must meet the requirements for MMU_LAZY_TLB_REFCOUNT=n (see above).
+config MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN
+	bool
 
 config ARCH_HAVE_NMI_SAFE_CMPXCHG
 	bool
diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 9f7fe3541897..263660e78c2a 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -780,6 +780,67 @@ static void check_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
 #define allocate_mm()	(kmem_cache_alloc(mm_cachep, GFP_KERNEL))
 #define free_mm(mm)	(kmem_cache_free(mm_cachep, (mm)))
 
+static void do_check_lazy_tlb(void *arg)
+{
+	struct mm_struct *mm = arg;
+
+	WARN_ON_ONCE(current->active_mm == mm);
+}
+
+static void do_shoot_lazy_tlb(void *arg)
+{
+	struct mm_struct *mm = arg;
+
+	if (current->active_mm == mm) {
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(current->mm);
+		current->active_mm = &init_mm;
+		switch_mm(mm, &init_mm, current);
+	}
+}
+
+static void cleanup_lazy_tlbs(struct mm_struct *mm)
+{
+	if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MMU_LAZY_TLB_SHOOTDOWN)) {
+		/*
+		 * In this case, lazy tlb mms are refounted and would not reach
+		 * __mmdrop until all CPUs have switched away and mmdrop()ed.
+		 */
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Lazy TLB shootdown does not refcount "lazy tlb mm" usage, rather it
+	 * requires lazy mm users to switch to another mm when the refcount
+	 * drops to zero, before the mm is freed. This requires IPIs here to
+	 * switch kernel threads to init_mm.
+	 *
+	 * archs that use IPIs to flush TLBs can piggy-back that lazy tlb mm
+	 * switch with the final userspace teardown TLB flush which leaves the
+	 * mm lazy on this CPU but no others, reducing the need for additional
+	 * IPIs here. There are cases where a final IPI is still required here,
+	 * such as the final mmdrop being performed on a different CPU than the
+	 * one exiting, or kernel threads using the mm when userspace exits.
+	 *
+	 * IPI overheads have not found to be expensive, but they could be
+	 * reduced in a number of possible ways, for example (roughly
+	 * increasing order of complexity):
+	 * - The last lazy reference created by exit_mm() could instead switch
+	 *   to init_mm, however it's probable this will run on the same CPU
+	 *   immediately afterwards, so this may not reduce IPIs much.
+	 * - A batch of mms requiring IPIs could be gathered and freed at once.
+	 * - CPUs store active_mm where it can be remotely checked without a
+	 *   lock, to filter out false-positives in the cpumask.
+	 * - After mm_users or mm_count reaches zero, switching away from the
+	 *   mm could clear mm_cpumask to reduce some IPIs, perhaps together
+	 *   with some batching or delaying of the final IPIs.
+	 * - A delayed freeing and RCU-like quiescing sequence based on mm
+	 *   switching to avoid IPIs completely.
+	 */
+	on_each_cpu_mask(mm_cpumask(mm), do_shoot_lazy_tlb, (void *)mm, 1);
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DEBUG_VM))
+		on_each_cpu(do_check_lazy_tlb, (void *)mm, 1);
+}
+
 /*
  * Called when the last reference to the mm
  * is dropped: either by a lazy thread or by
@@ -791,6 +852,10 @@ void __mmdrop(struct mm_struct *mm)
 
 	BUG_ON(mm == &init_mm);
 	WARN_ON_ONCE(mm == current->mm);
+
+	/* Ensure no CPUs are using this as their lazy tlb mm */
+	cleanup_lazy_tlbs(mm);
+
 	WARN_ON_ONCE(mm == current->active_mm);
 	mm_free_pgd(mm);
 	destroy_context(mm);
-- 
2.37.2