Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH v7 15/17] vmx: VT-d posted-interrupt core logic handling

[George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 09/17/2015 10:38 AM, George Dunlap wrote:
> On 09/17/2015 09:48 AM, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>> On Thu, 2015-09-17 at 08:00 +0000, Wu, Feng wrote:
>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Dario Faggioli [mailto:dario.faggioli@xxxxxxxxxx]
>>
>>>> So, I guess, first of all, can you confirm whether or not it's exploding
>>>> in debug builds?
>>>
>>> Does the following information in Config.mk mean it is a debug build?
>>>
>>> # A debug build of Xen and tools?
>>> debug ?= y
>>> debug_symbols ?= $(debug)
>>>
>> I think so. But as I said in my other email, I was wrong, and this is
>> probably not an issue.
>>
>>>> And in either case (just tossing out ideas) would it be
>>>> possible to deal with the "interrupt already raised when blocking" case:
>>>
>>> Thanks for the suggestions below!
>>>
>> :-)
>>
>>>>  - later in the context switching function ?
>>> In this case, we might need to set a flag in vmx_pre_ctx_switch_pi() instead
>>> of calling vcpu_unblock() directly, then when it returns to 
>>> context_switch(),
>>> we can check the flag and don't really block the vCPU. 
>>>
>> Yeah, and that would still be rather hard to understand and maintain,
>> IMO.
>>
>>> But I don't have a clear
>>> picture about how to archive this, here are some questions from me:
>>> - When we are in context_switch(), we have done the following changes to
>>> vcpu's state:
>>>     * sd->curr is set to next
>>>     * vCPU's running state (both prev and next ) is changed by
>>>       vcpu_runstate_change()
>>>     * next->is_running is set to 1
>>>     * periodic timer for prev is stopped
>>>     * periodic timer for next is setup
>>>     ......
>>>
>>> So what point should we perform the action to _unblock_ the vCPU? We
>>> Need to roll back the formal changes to the vCPU's state, right?
>>>
>> Mmm... not really. Not blocking prev does not mean that prev would be
>> kept running on the pCPU, and that's true for your current solution as
>> well! As you say yourself, you're already in the process of switching
>> between prev and next, at a point where it's already a thing that next
>> will be the vCPU that will run. Not blocking means that prev is
>> reinserted to the runqueue, and a new invocation to the scheduler is
>> (potentially) queued as well (via raising SCHEDULE_SOFTIRQ, in
>> __runq_tickle()), but it's only when such new scheduling happens that
>> prev will (potentially) be selected to run again.
>>
>> So, no, unless I'm fully missing your point, there wouldn't be no
>> rollback required. However, I still would like the other solution (doing
>> stuff in vcpu_block()) better (see below).
>>
>>>>  - with another hook, perhaps in vcpu_block() ?
>>>
>>> We could check this in vcpu_block(), however, the logic here is that before
>>> vCPU is blocked, we need to change the posted-interrupt descriptor,
>>> and during changing it, if 'ON' bit is set, which means VT-d hardware
>>> issues a notification event because interrupts from the assigned devices
>>> is coming, we don't need to block the vCPU and hence no need to update
>>> the PI descriptor in this case. 
>>>
>> Yep, I saw that. But could it be possible to do *everything* related to
>> blocking, including the update of the descriptor, in vcpu_block(), if no
>> interrupt have been raised yet at that time? I mean, would you, if
>> updating the descriptor in there, still get the event that allows you to
>> call vcpu_wake(), and hence vmx_vcpu_wake_prepare(), which would undo
>> the blocking, no matter whether that resulted in an actual context
>> switch already or not?
>>
>> I appreciate that this narrows the window for such an event to happen by
>> quite a bit, making the logic itself a little less useful (it makes
>> things more similar to "regular" blocking vs. event delivery, though,
>> AFAICT), but if it's correct, ad if it allows us to save the ugly
>> invocation of vcpu_unblock from context switch context, I'd give it a
>> try.
>>
>> After all, this PI thing requires actions to be taken when a vCPU is
>> scheduled or descheduled because of blocking, unblocking and
>> preemptions, and it would seem natural to me to:
>>  - deal with blockings in vcpu_block()
>>  - deal with unblockings in vcpu_wake()
>>  - deal with preemptions in context_switch()
>>
>> This does not mean being able to consolidate some of the cases (like
>> blockings and preemptions, in the current version of the code) were not
>> a nice thing... But we don't want it at all costs . :-)
> 
> So just to clarify the situation...

Er, and to clarify something else -- Technically I'm responding to Dario
here, but my mail is actually addressed to Wu Feng.  This was just a
good point to "put my oar in" to the conversation. :-)

 -George


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