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| author | Kees Cook <kees+treewide@kernel.org> | 2026-09-02 15:31:14 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org> | 2026-09-04 21:37:00 -0700 |
| commit | 3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d (patch) | |
| tree | c65086f9bdcd48c6360fb7cb4598bca084da1f32 /Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d.tar.gz linux-stable-3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d.zip | |
treewide: refresh kmalloc_obj() conversionsgrafted
This is another run of the Coccinelle script for converting kmalloc()
family of allocations to kmalloc_obj() via the existing rules in
scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci
This catches both the set of kmalloc() uses added since the first
kmalloc_obj() conversions in v7.0 and adds a large group missed in the
first pass due to Coccinelle not interacting well with the cleanup.h
scoped_...() family of macros[1]. I worked around this with spatch's
"--macro-file" argument to a file with all the scoped_...() macros mapped
to Coccinelle's YACFE_ITERATOR[2] as that was the closest viable control
flow indicator I could find.
Build tested allmodconfig on x86, arm64, arm, loongarch, mips, powerpc,
riscv, and s390 with no new warnings.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/202609021314.8A9C0B8@keescook/ [1]
Link: https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/master/standard.h [2]
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees+treewide@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst | 325 |
1 files changed, 325 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ee9a6c94f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-per-CPU-kthreads.rst @@ -0,0 +1,325 @@ +========================================== +Reducing OS jitter due to per-cpu kthreads +========================================== + +This document lists per-CPU kthreads in the Linux kernel and presents +options to control their OS jitter. Note that non-per-CPU kthreads are +not listed here. To reduce OS jitter from non-per-CPU kthreads, bind +them to a "housekeeping" CPU dedicated to such work. + +References +========== + +- Documentation/core-api/irq/irq-affinity.rst: Binding interrupts to sets of CPUs. + +- Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v1: Using cgroups to bind tasks to sets of CPUs. + +- man taskset: Using the taskset command to bind tasks to sets + of CPUs. + +- man sched_setaffinity: Using the sched_setaffinity() system + call to bind tasks to sets of CPUs. + +- /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/online: Control CPU N's hotplug state, + writing "0" to offline and "1" to online. + +- In order to locate kernel-generated OS jitter on CPU N: + + cd /sys/kernel/tracing + echo 1 > max_graph_depth # Increase the "1" for more detail + echo function_graph > current_tracer + # run workload + cat per_cpu/cpuN/trace + +kthreads +======== + +Name: + ehca_comp/%u + +Purpose: + Periodically process Infiniband-related work. + +To reduce its OS jitter, do any of the following: + +1. Don't use eHCA Infiniband hardware, instead choosing hardware + that does not require per-CPU kthreads. This will prevent these + kthreads from being created in the first place. (This will + work for most people, as this hardware, though important, is + relatively old and is produced in relatively low unit volumes.) +2. Do all eHCA-Infiniband-related work on other CPUs, including + interrupts. +3. Rework the eHCA driver so that its per-CPU kthreads are + provisioned only on selected CPUs. + + +Name: + irq/%d-%s + +Purpose: + Handle threaded interrupts. + +To reduce its OS jitter, do the following: + +1. Use irq affinity to force the irq threads to execute on + some other CPU. + +Name: + kcmtpd_ctr_%d + +Purpose: + Handle Bluetooth work. + +To reduce its OS jitter, do one of the following: + +1. Don't use Bluetooth, in which case these kthreads won't be + created in the first place. +2. Use irq affinity to force Bluetooth-related interrupts to + occur on some other CPU and furthermore initiate all + Bluetooth activity on some other CPU. + +Name: + ksoftirqd/%u + +Purpose: + Execute softirq handlers when threaded or when under heavy load. + +To reduce its OS jitter, each softirq vector must be handled +separately as follows: + +TIMER_SOFTIRQ +------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. To the extent possible, keep the CPU out of the kernel when it + is non-idle, for example, by avoiding system calls and by forcing + both kernel threads and interrupts to execute elsewhere. +2. Build with CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=y. After boot completes, force + the CPU offline, then bring it back online. This forces + recurring timers to migrate elsewhere. If you are concerned + with multiple CPUs, force them all offline before bringing the + first one back online. Once you have onlined the CPUs in question, + do not offline any other CPUs, because doing so could force the + timer back onto one of the CPUs in question. + +NET_TX_SOFTIRQ and NET_RX_SOFTIRQ +--------------------------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. Force networking interrupts onto other CPUs. +2. Initiate any network I/O on other CPUs. +3. Once your application has started, prevent CPU-hotplug operations + from being initiated from tasks that might run on the CPU to + be de-jittered. (It is OK to force this CPU offline and then + bring it back online before you start your application.) + +BLOCK_SOFTIRQ +------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. Force block-device interrupts onto some other CPU. +2. Initiate any block I/O on other CPUs. +3. Once your application has started, prevent CPU-hotplug operations + from being initiated from tasks that might run on the CPU to + be de-jittered. (It is OK to force this CPU offline and then + bring it back online before you start your application.) + +IRQ_POLL_SOFTIRQ +---------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. Force block-device interrupts onto some other CPU. +2. Initiate any block I/O and block-I/O polling on other CPUs. +3. Once your application has started, prevent CPU-hotplug operations + from being initiated from tasks that might run on the CPU to + be de-jittered. (It is OK to force this CPU offline and then + bring it back online before you start your application.) + +TASKLET_SOFTIRQ +--------------- + +Do one or more of the following: + +1. Avoid use of drivers that use tasklets. (Such drivers will contain + calls to things like tasklet_schedule().) +2. Convert all drivers that you must use from tasklets to workqueues. +3. Force interrupts for drivers using tasklets onto other CPUs, + and also do I/O involving these drivers on other CPUs. + +SCHED_SOFTIRQ +------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. Avoid sending scheduler IPIs to the CPU to be de-jittered, + for example, ensure that at most one runnable kthread is present + on that CPU. If a thread that expects to run on the de-jittered + CPU awakens, the scheduler will send an IPI that can result in + a subsequent SCHED_SOFTIRQ. +2. CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y and ensure that the CPU to be de-jittered + is marked as an adaptive-ticks CPU using the "nohz_full=" + boot parameter. This reduces the number of scheduler-clock + interrupts that the de-jittered CPU receives, minimizing its + chances of being selected to do the load balancing work that + runs in SCHED_SOFTIRQ context. +3. To the extent possible, keep the CPU out of the kernel when it + is non-idle, for example, by avoiding system calls and by + forcing both kernel threads and interrupts to execute elsewhere. + This further reduces the number of scheduler-clock interrupts + received by the de-jittered CPU. + +HRTIMER_SOFTIRQ +--------------- + +Do all of the following: + +1. To the extent possible, keep the CPU out of the kernel when it + is non-idle. For example, avoid system calls and force both + kernel threads and interrupts to execute elsewhere. +2. Build with CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=y. Once boot completes, force the + CPU offline, then bring it back online. This forces recurring + timers to migrate elsewhere. If you are concerned with multiple + CPUs, force them all offline before bringing the first one + back online. Once you have onlined the CPUs in question, do not + offline any other CPUs, because doing so could force the timer + back onto one of the CPUs in question. + +RCU_SOFTIRQ +----------- + +Do at least one of the following: + +1. Offload callbacks and keep the CPU in either dyntick-idle or + adaptive-ticks state by doing all of the following: + + a. CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y and ensure that the CPU to be + de-jittered is marked as an adaptive-ticks CPU using the + "nohz_full=" boot parameter. Bind the rcuo kthreads to + housekeeping CPUs, which can tolerate OS jitter. + b. To the extent possible, keep the CPU out of the kernel + when it is non-idle, for example, by avoiding system + calls and by forcing both kernel threads and interrupts + to execute elsewhere. + +2. Enable RCU to do its processing remotely via dyntick-idle by + doing all of the following: + + a. Build with CONFIG_NO_HZ=y. + b. Ensure that the CPU goes idle frequently, allowing other + CPUs to detect that it has passed through an RCU quiescent + state. If the kernel is built with CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y, + userspace execution also allows other CPUs to detect that + the CPU in question has passed through a quiescent state. + c. To the extent possible, keep the CPU out of the kernel + when it is non-idle, for example, by avoiding system + calls and by forcing both kernel threads and interrupts + to execute elsewhere. + +Name: + kworker/%u:%d%s (cpu, id, priority) + +Purpose: + Execute workqueue requests + +To reduce its OS jitter, do any of the following: + +1. Run your workload at a real-time priority, which will allow + preempting the kworker daemons. +2. A given workqueue can be made visible in the sysfs filesystem + by passing the WQ_SYSFS to that workqueue's alloc_workqueue(). + Such a workqueue can be confined to a given subset of the + CPUs using the ``/sys/devices/virtual/workqueue/*/cpumask`` sysfs + files. The set of WQ_SYSFS workqueues can be displayed using + "ls /sys/devices/virtual/workqueue". That said, the workqueues + maintainer would like to caution people against indiscriminately + sprinkling WQ_SYSFS across all the workqueues. The reason for + caution is that it is easy to add WQ_SYSFS, but because sysfs is + part of the formal user/kernel API, it can be nearly impossible + to remove it, even if its addition was a mistake. +3. Do any of the following needed to avoid jitter that your + application cannot tolerate: + + a. Avoid using oprofile, thus avoiding OS jitter from + wq_sync_buffer(). + b. Limit your CPU frequency so that a CPU-frequency + governor is not required, possibly enlisting the aid of + special heatsinks or other cooling technologies. If done + correctly, and if you CPU architecture permits, you should + be able to build your kernel with CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=n to + avoid the CPU-frequency governor periodically running + on each CPU, including cs_dbs_timer() and od_dbs_timer(). + + WARNING: Please check your CPU specifications to + make sure that this is safe on your particular system. + c. As of v3.18, Christoph Lameter's on-demand vmstat workers + commit prevents OS jitter due to vmstat_update() on + CONFIG_SMP=y systems. Before v3.18, is not possible + to entirely get rid of the OS jitter, but you can + decrease its frequency by writing a large value to + /proc/sys/vm/stat_interval. The default value is HZ, + for an interval of one second. Of course, larger values + will make your virtual-memory statistics update more + slowly. Of course, you can also run your workload at + a real-time priority, thus preempting vmstat_update(), + but if your workload is CPU-bound, this is a bad idea. + However, there is an RFC patch from Christoph Lameter + (based on an earlier one from Gilad Ben-Yossef) that + reduces or even eliminates vmstat overhead for some + workloads at https://lore.kernel.org/r/00000140e9dfd6bd-40db3d4f-c1be-434f-8132-7820f81bb586-000000@email.amazonses.com. + d. If running on high-end powerpc servers, build with + CONFIG_PPC_RTAS_DAEMON=n. This prevents the RTAS + daemon from running on each CPU every second or so. + (This will require editing Kconfig files and will defeat + this platform's RAS functionality.) This avoids jitter + due to the rtas_event_scan() function. + WARNING: Please check your CPU specifications to + make sure that this is safe on your particular system. + e. If running on PowerMAC, build your kernel with + CONFIG_PMAC_RACKMETER=n to disable the CPU-meter, + avoiding OS jitter from rackmeter_do_timer(). + +Name: + rcuc/%u + +Purpose: + Execute RCU callbacks in CONFIG_RCU_BOOST=y kernels. + +To reduce its OS jitter, do at least one of the following: + +1. Build the kernel with CONFIG_PREEMPT=n. This prevents these + kthreads from being created in the first place, and also obviates + the need for RCU priority boosting. This approach is feasible + for workloads that do not require high degrees of responsiveness. +2. Build the kernel with CONFIG_RCU_BOOST=n. This prevents these + kthreads from being created in the first place. This approach + is feasible only if your workload never requires RCU priority + boosting, for example, if you ensure frequent idle time on all + CPUs that might execute within the kernel. +3. Build with CONFIG_RCU_NOCB_CPU=y and boot with the rcu_nocbs= + boot parameter offloading RCU callbacks from all CPUs susceptible + to OS jitter. This approach prevents the rcuc/%u kthreads from + having any work to do, so that they are never awakened. +4. Ensure that the CPU never enters the kernel, and, in particular, + avoid initiating any CPU hotplug operations on this CPU. This is + another way of preventing any callbacks from being queued on the + CPU, again preventing the rcuc/%u kthreads from having any work + to do. + +Name: + rcuop/%d, rcuos/%d, and rcuog/%d + +Purpose: + Offload RCU callbacks from the corresponding CPU. + +To reduce its OS jitter, do at least one of the following: + +1. Use affinity, cgroups, or other mechanism to force these kthreads + to execute on some other CPU. +2. Build with CONFIG_RCU_NOCB_CPU=n, which will prevent these + kthreads from being created in the first place. However, please + note that this will not eliminate OS jitter, but will instead + shift it to RCU_SOFTIRQ. |
