Re: [PATCH v2 4/8] sched/fair: rework load_balance

[Valentin Schneider <valentin.schneider@arm.com>]

On 29/08/2019 15:26, Vincent Guittot wrote:
[...]
>> Seeing how much stuff we already do in just computing the stats, do we
>> really save that much by doing this? I'd expect it to be negligible with
>> modern architectures and all of the OoO/voodoo, but maybe I need a
>> refresher course.
> 
> We are not only running on top/latest architecture
> 

I know, and I'm not going to argue for a mere division either. I think I
made my point.

[...]>>>>> +     if (busiest->group_type == group_misfit_task) {
>>>>> +             /* Set imbalance to allow misfit task to be balanced. */
>>>>> +             env->balance_type = migrate_misfit;
>>>>> +             env->imbalance = busiest->group_misfit_task_load;
>>>>
>>>> AFAICT we don't ever use this value, other than setting it to 0 in
>>>> detach_tasks(), so what we actually set it to doesn't matter (as long as
>>>> it's > 0).
>>>
>>> not yet.
>>> it's only in patch 8/8 that we check if the tasks fits the cpu's
>>> capacity during the detach_tasks
>>>
>>
>> But that doesn't use env->imbalance, right? With that v3 patch it's just
>> the task util's, so AFAICT my comment still stands.
> 
> no, misfit case keeps using load and imbalance like the current
> implementation in this patch.
> The modifications on the way to handle misfit task are all in patch 8
> 
Right, my reply was a bit too terse. What I meant is that with patch 8 the
value of env->imbalance is irrelevant when dealing with misfit tasks - we
only check the task's utilization in detach_tasks(), we don't do any
comparison of the task's signals with env->imbalance.

Whether we set the imbalance to the load value and set it to 0 in
detach_tasks() or set it to 1 and decrement it in detach_tasks() gives the
same result. That's why I was saying it conceptually fits with the
migrate_task logic, since we can set the imbalance to 1 (we only want to
migrate one task).