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From: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
To: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
	Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com>,
	a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl, mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com,
	davem@davemloft.net, ddaney.cavm@gmail.com,
	akpm@linux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Subject: [PATCH] jump labels: Explain the .config option better
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:03:18 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20120222090318.GB26397@elte.hu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20120222081855.GB25318@elte.hu>


 - update the help text as it's not only about trace points anymore
    
 - explain the functional effects of the option prominently, 
   treating the implementational details as a second level of 
   information

Additionally we might also consider renaming CONFIG_JUMP_LABEL 
to:

   CONFIG_OPTIMIZE_STATIC_BRANCHES=y

or so, to make it clearer what it's all really about and makes 
it part of the family of similarly named optimizations - but I'm 
not too concerned about that, as CONFIG_JUMP_LABEL does not 
appear in actual static-key usage sites.
    
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
---
 arch/Kconfig |   27 +++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig
index 4f55c73..5b448a7 100644
--- a/arch/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/Kconfig
@@ -47,18 +47,29 @@ config KPROBES
 	  If in doubt, say "N".
 
 config JUMP_LABEL
-       bool "Optimize trace point call sites"
+       bool "Optimize very unlikely/likely branches"
        depends on HAVE_ARCH_JUMP_LABEL
        help
+         This option enables a transparent branch optimization that
+	 makes certain almost-always-true or almost-always-false branch
+	 conditions even cheaper to execute within the kernel.
+
+	 Certain performance-sensitive kernel code, such as trace points,
+	 scheduler functionality, networking code and KVM have such
+	 branches and include support for this optimization technique.
+
          If it is detected that the compiler has support for "asm goto",
-	 the kernel will compile trace point locations with just a
-	 nop instruction. When trace points are enabled, the nop will
-	 be converted to a jump to the trace function. This technique
-	 lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction of the
-	 processor.
-
-	 On i386, options added to the compiler flags may increase
-	 the size of the kernel slightly.
+	 the kernel will compile such branches with just a nop
+	 instruction. When the condition flag is toggled to true, the
+	 nop will be converted to a jump instruction to execute the
+	 conditional block of instructions.
+
+	 This technique lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction
+	 of the processor and generally makes the kernel faster. The update
+	 of the condition is slower, but those are always very rare.
+
+	 ( On 32-bit x86, the necessary options added to the compiler
+	   flags may increase the size of the kernel slightly. )
 
 config OPTPROBES
 	def_bool y

  parent reply	other threads:[~2012-02-22  9:03 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 84+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2012-02-21 20:02 [PATCH 00/10] jump label: introduce very_[un]likely + cleanups + docs Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:02 ` [PATCH 01/10] jump label: Add a WARN() if jump label key count goes negative Jason Baron
2012-02-29 10:13   ` [tip:perf/core] " tip-bot for Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:02 ` [PATCH 02/10] jump label: fix compiler warning Jason Baron
2012-02-29 10:14   ` [tip:perf/core] jump label: Fix " tip-bot for Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 03/10] jump label: introduce very_unlikely() Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 04/10] jump label: introduce very_likely() Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 05/10] perf: update to use 'very_unlikely()' Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 06/10] tracepoints: update to use very_unlikely() Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 07/10] sched: update to use very_[un]likely() Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 08/10] kvm: update to use very_unlikely() Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 09/10] net: " Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:03 ` [PATCH 10/10] jump label: Add docs better explaining the whole jump label mechanism Jason Baron
2012-02-29 10:15   ` [tip:perf/core] static keys: Add docs better explaining the whole 'struct static_key' mechanism tip-bot for Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:09 ` [PATCH 00/10] jump label: introduce very_[un]likely + cleanups + docs H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-21 20:20   ` Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:39     ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-21 21:10       ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-21 21:16         ` Mathieu Desnoyers
2012-02-21 21:11       ` Mathieu Desnoyers
2012-02-22  7:32       ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  7:53         ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  8:01           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22  8:18             ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  8:58               ` [PATCH] static keys: Introduce 'struct static_key', very_[un]likely(), static_key_slow_[inc|dec]() Ingo Molnar
2012-02-29 10:16                 ` [tip:perf/core] static keys: Introduce 'struct static_key', static_key_true()/false() and static_key_slow_[inc|dec]() tip-bot for Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  9:03               ` Ingo Molnar [this message]
2012-02-22 15:08               ` [PATCH 00/10] jump label: introduce very_[un]likely + cleanups + docs H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 15:51                 ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22 21:33               ` Paul Mackerras
2012-02-23 10:02                 ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-23 16:21                   ` Jason Baron
2012-02-23 17:10                     ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-24  9:11                     ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-23 17:18                   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-02-23 22:33                     ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-23 22:39                       ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-23 22:44                         ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-23 23:18                         ` Mathieu Desnoyers
2012-02-24  2:25                           ` Jason Baron
2012-02-24  9:08                             ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-24 15:35                               ` Jason Baron
2012-02-27  7:40                                 ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-24 15:51                               ` Mathieu Desnoyers
2012-02-24 16:06                               ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-24  7:52                         ` static keys: Introduce 'struct static_key', static_key_true()/false() and static_key_slow_[inc|dec]() Ingo Molnar
2012-02-24  7:59                           ` [PATCH] " Ingo Molnar
2012-02-24  7:54                         ` [PATCH] static keys: Add docs better explaining the whole 'struct static_key' mechanism Ingo Molnar
2012-02-23 22:45                       ` [PATCH 00/10] jump label: introduce very_[un]likely + cleanups + docs Linus Torvalds
2012-02-24  8:04                         ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-24  2:42                       ` Jason Baron
2012-02-21 20:21   ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-21 21:11     ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22  6:50   ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  7:03     ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22  7:25       ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  7:35         ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22  7:48           ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22  7:55             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22  8:06               ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22 13:22                 ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 13:34                   ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22 13:54                     ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 14:20                       ` Mathieu Desnoyers
2012-02-22 14:36                         ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 14:56                       ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22 15:11                         ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 15:11                         ` Peter Zijlstra
2012-02-22 15:47                           ` Ingo Molnar
2012-02-22 15:12                         ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 15:15                           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 15:19                           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 15:42                           ` Jason Baron
2012-02-22 15:54                             ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 15:56                               ` Jason Baron
2012-02-22 16:08                                 ` Steven Rostedt
2012-02-22 15:19                         ` Jason Baron
2012-02-22 15:40                           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 15:13                       ` Peter Zijlstra
2012-02-22 15:32                         ` Peter Zijlstra
2012-02-22 17:14                           ` Richard Henderson
2012-02-22 18:28                             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-02-22 18:58                             ` Jason Baron
2012-02-22 19:10                               ` H. Peter Anvin

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