From 0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tim Chen Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:37:22 -0700 Subject: sched/cache: Keep nr_pref_llc_running in the runnable domain, to fix LLC mis-scheduling bug alb_break_llc() decides whether to break LLC preference during active load balance. It does so by testing that every runnable fair task on the source rq prefers its LLC: env->src_rq->nr_pref_llc_running == env->src_rq->cfs.h_nr_runnable But the two counters cover different sets. nr_pref_llc_running is updated in account_llc_enqueue()/account_llc_dequeue(), next to cfs_rq->nr_queued, so it follows queued tasks. h_nr_runnable is updated in set_delayed()/ clear_delayed() and drops delay-dequeued tasks. So under DELAY_DEQUEUE, a preferring task that goes to sleep stays counted in nr_pref_llc_running while h_nr_runnable falls. The equality then breaks, alb_break_llc() returns false, and active balance is free to pull a task off its preferred LLC. Active balance only moves runnable tasks, and this is the only LLC check it consults: once the stopper runs, LBF_ACTIVE_LB skips the per-task test in can_migrate_task(). The runnable set is the one we want. Fix it on the counter side. A task should be counted in nr_pref_llc_running exactly while it is both queued on its preferred LLC (pref_llc_queued) and runnable (!sched_delayed). Define that membership once in task_pref_llc_runnable(), and adjust the counter only through pref_llc_running_inc()/pref_llc_running_dec() from the four sites that change either input: account_llc_enqueue(), account_llc_dequeue(), set_delayed() and clear_delayed(). Gating every update on the same predicate keeps the delay, wake and dequeue paths from double-counting or underflowing; see the comments at those sites for the ordering. nr_llc_running and sd->llc_counts are not touched and stay on queued semantics. Fixes: 714059f79ff0 ("sched/cache: Handle moving single tasks to/from their preferred LLC") Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260827135000.735138-1-zhanxusheng@xiaomi.com/ Reported-by: Zhan Xusheng Suggested-by: Chen Yu Signed-off-by: Tim Chen Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar Reviewed-by: Kayra Cizmeci Cc: # v7.2.x Link: https://patch.msgid.link/06af61afedac32e6477f57feb4d658f6c411c3af.1790035273.git.tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com --- Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst | 644 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 644 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst') diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..325816edb --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst @@ -0,0 +1,644 @@ +============================ +A block layer cache (bcache) +============================ + +Say you've got a big slow raid 6, and an ssd or three. Wouldn't it be +nice if you could use them as cache... Hence bcache. + +The bcache wiki can be found at: + https://bcache.evilpiepirate.org + +This is the git repository of bcache-tools: + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/colyli/bcache-tools.git/ + +The latest bcache kernel code can be found from mainline Linux kernel: + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/ + +It's designed around the performance characteristics of SSDs - it only allocates +in erase block sized buckets, and it uses a hybrid btree/log to track cached +extents (which can be anywhere from a single sector to the bucket size). It's +designed to avoid random writes at all costs. + +Both writethrough and writeback caching are supported. Writeback defaults to +off, but can be switched on and off arbitrarily at runtime. Bcache goes to +great lengths to protect your data - it reliably handles unclean shutdown. (It +doesn't even have a notion of a clean shutdown; bcache simply doesn't return +writes as completed until they're on stable storage). + +Writeback caching can use most of the cache for buffering writes - writing +dirty data to the backing device is always done sequentially, scanning from the +start to the end of the index. + +Since random IO is what SSDs excel at, there generally won't be much benefit +to caching large sequential IO. Bcache detects sequential IO and skips it; +it also keeps a rolling average of the IO sizes per task, and as long as the +average is above the cutoff it will skip all IO from that task - instead of +caching the first 512k after every seek. Backups and large file copies should +thus entirely bypass the cache. + +In the event of a data IO error on the flash it will try to recover by reading +from disk or invalidating cache entries. For unrecoverable errors (meta data +or dirty data), caching is automatically disabled; if dirty data was present +in the cache it first disables writeback caching and waits for all dirty data +to be flushed. + +Getting started: +You'll need bcache util from the bcache-tools repository. Both the cache device +and backing device must be formatted before use:: + + bcache make -B /dev/sdb + bcache make -C /dev/sdc + +`bcache make` has the ability to format multiple devices at the same time - if +you format your backing devices and cache device at the same time, you won't +have to manually attach:: + + bcache make -B /dev/sda /dev/sdb -C /dev/sdc + +If your bcache-tools is not updated to latest version and does not have the +unified `bcache` utility, you may use the legacy `make-bcache` utility to format +bcache device with same -B and -C parameters. + +bcache-tools now ships udev rules, and bcache devices are known to the kernel +immediately. Without udev, you can manually register devices like this:: + + echo /dev/sdb > /sys/fs/bcache/register + echo /dev/sdc > /sys/fs/bcache/register + +Registering the backing device makes the bcache device show up in /dev; you can +now format it and use it as normal. But the first time using a new bcache +device, it'll be running in passthrough mode until you attach it to a cache. +If you are thinking about using bcache later, it is recommended to setup all your +slow devices as bcache backing devices without a cache, and you can choose to add +a caching device later. +See 'ATTACHING' section below. + +The devices show up as:: + + /dev/bcache + +As well as (with udev):: + + /dev/bcache/by-uuid/ + /dev/bcache/by-label/