From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 References: <2098c9e4-4fb1-ef49-2c2d-d2c6573499b5@siemens.com> <87lf83cj7k.fsf@xenomai.org> <14ad027b-f326-5ea8-9cce-cb4b82984a23@siemens.com> <87y2c3b092.fsf@xenomai.org> <3bf57e72-9992-0ab4-a956-d6f6197bfe24@siemens.com> <87sg2bat1l.fsf@xenomai.org> <87o8czar20.fsf@xenomai.org> From: Philippe Gerum Subject: Re: "rtdm/nrtsig: move inband work description off the stack" In-reply-to: Message-ID: <87a6ohzjoi.fsf@xenomai.org> Date: Wed, 26 May 2021 15:52:29 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain List-Id: Discussions about the Xenomai project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Jan Kiszka Cc: Xenomai Jan Kiszka writes: > On 25.05.21 15:20, Philippe Gerum wrote: >> >> Jan Kiszka writes: >> >>> On 25.05.21 14:37, Philippe Gerum wrote: >>>> >>>> Jan Kiszka writes: >>>> >>>>> On 25.05.21 12:01, Philippe Gerum wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Jan Kiszka writes: >>>>>> >>>>>>> On 25.05.21 10:46, Philippe Gerum wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Jan Kiszka writes: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Hi Philippe, >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> [1] makes rtdm_schedule_nrt_work a rather heavyweight service, compared >>>>>>>>> to what it was (and even over I-pipe). xnmalloc is nothing you would >>>>>>>>> expect from a "send a signal" service, specifically from >>>>>>>>> rtdm_nrtsig_pend which does not even make use of the sending extra payload. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Can we do better? Also for xnthread_signal (fd and udd usecases are not >>>>>>>>> time-sensitive anyway). >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Nope, I cannot see any significantly better option which would still >>>>>>>> allow a common implementation we can map on top of Dovetail / I-pipe. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> E.g. pre-allocate the work object for data-free signals and use that - >>>>>>> or not send it when it is in use, thus pending. >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Ok, let's recap: >>>>>> >>>>>> - rtdm_nrtsig_pend(): does not allocate anything, merely uses a >>>>>> user-provided memory block, containing a request header. Current >>>>>> callers should either already care for not resending a request >>>>>> uselessly because it is pending (e.g. [1]), or their internal logic >>>>>> should prevent that (e.g. [2]). This interface always convey user data >>>>>> by reference. >>>>> >>>>> Ah, I fantasized that rtdm_nrtsig_pend would call rtdm_schedule_nrt_work >>>>> to do the work, it's the other way around. False alarm here. >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> - rtdm_schedule_nrt_work(): does allocate a nrtsig_t struct in order to >>>>>> convey a request block we cannot squeeze into a work_struct, since the >>>>>> latter is in itself an anchor type the user may embed into its own >>>>>> private argument block. I'm unsure ensuring that >>>>>> rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() calls do not pile up would be worth it, as >>>>>> this call is not supposed to be used frenetically on some hot path in >>>>>> the first place. But if we'd want to do that, then we would have to >>>>>> change the signature of rtdm_schedule_nrt_work(), so that we gain a >>>>>> persistent context data we could use for determining whether a nrt >>>>>> work request is in flight. We could not probe the work_struct for that >>>>>> purpose, that would be racy. >>>>>> >>>>>> Do you see any way to have a smarter rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() without >>>>>> changing its signature? >>>>> >>>>> There is no rule that prevents changing the signature if that is needed. >>>>> However, the kernel is fine without allocation as well, using a very >>>>> similar signature. >>>>> >>>> >>>> schedule_work() and rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() have a major difference: >>>> the latter has to pass on the request from the oob to the in-band >>>> context. This is what bugs us and creates the requirement for additional >>>> mechanism and data. >>>> >>>>> I do not yet understand way we need that indirection via the rtdm_nrtsig >>>>> on Dovetail. I thought we can trigger work directly from the oob domain >>>>> there, can't we? How do you handle such a case in evl so far? >>>>> >>>> >>>> Dovetail can trigger in-band work from oob via the generic irq_work() >>>> service, we don't need the extra code involved in the I-pipe for the >>>> same purpose. The gist of the matter is about having the same >>>> implementation for rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() which works in both Dovetail >>>> and I-pipe contexts: the way we do that is by using rtdm_nrtsig_pend() >>>> which already abstracts the base mechanism for relaying oob -> in-band >>>> signals. >>>> >>>> On the other hand, EVL has the evl_call_inband[_from]() service, which >>>> combines the irq_work and work_struct anchors we need into a single >>>> evl_work type, which in turn can be embedded into a user request >>>> block. This is what rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() does not expose, so it has >>>> to build one internally by combining a dynamic allocation and the >>>> user-provided work_struct. >>>> >>> >>> Then enhance the rtdm service to enable such a combination - and be even >>> more ready for the switch to Xenomai 4, I would say. We can either add a >>> new service and deprecate the old one (while implementing it as you >>> suggest) or just break the interface to get the (presumably) few users >>> quickly converted. >>> >> >> rtdm_schedule_nrt_work() was added by Gilles when merging the RTnet code >> into Xenomai 3 IIRC, with little documentation. Widespread usage of this >> call is unlikely, so I'd vote for simplifying the whole thing and >> replace it entirely. >> > > OK, then we have a plan for this piece. > >>>>> And the third case remains xnthread_signal, btw. >>>>> >>>> >>>> xnthread_signal() is used to trigger SIGDEBUG/SIGSHADOW/SIGTERM signals >>>> for a thread, a seldom event. Optimizing there would be overkill, unless >>>> the application behaves wrongly in the first place. >>> >>> Some caller are under nklock, thus it makes potentially lengthy critical >>> sections now a bit longer. >>> >> >> This is what needs to be fixed in the first place, we should not trigger >> a signal relay when holding the ugly big lock. >> > > Whatever is simpler. > > Another aspect: Using xnmalloc for anything that should better succeed > is possibly not good when we are OOM. That is actually no strict > regression over I-pipe where we had a limited queue as well IIRC but a > reason to avoid carrying that over - and possibly creating new error > scenarios that are harder to debug. > To mitigate the issue of generalized OOM, we could pull memory from a local xnheap privately attached to xnthread_signal() along with any caller requiring dynamic allocation, so that none of them could deplete the sysheap. Getting rid of dynamic allocation entirely on the other hand would require us to add one or more "signal slots" per possible cause of in-band signal into struct xnthread (e.g. SIGSHADOW_ACTION_BACKTRACE, SIGDEBUG_MIGRATE_SIGNAL etc), passing the proper slot to xnthread_signal(). SIGSHADOW(SIGWINCH) and SIGDEBUG(SIGXCPU) are standard non-queueable signals, so we should only need a single slot per signal cause. -- Philippe.