[PATCH] timers fixes/improvements

This patch tries to solve following problems:

1. del_timer_sync() is racy. The timer can be fired again after
   del_timer_sync have checked all cpus and before it will recheck
   timer_pending().

2. It has scalability problems. All cpus are scanned to determine
   if the timer is running on that cpu.

   With this patch del_timer_sync is O(1) and no slower than plain
   del_timer(pending_timer), unless it has to actually wait for
   completion of the currently running timer.

   The only restriction is that the recurring timer should not use
   add_timer_on().

3. The timers are not serialized wrt to itself.

   If CPU_0 does mod_timer(jiffies+1) while the timer is currently
   running on CPU 1, it is quite possible that local interrupt on
   CPU_0 will start that timer before it finished on CPU_1.

4. The timers locking is suboptimal. __mod_timer() takes 3 locks
   at once and still requires wmb() in del_timer/run_timers.

   The new implementation takes 2 locks sequentially and does not
   need memory barriers.

Currently ->base != NULL means that the timer is pending. In that case
->base.lock is used to lock the timer. __mod_timer also takes timer->lock
because ->base can be == NULL.

This patch uses timer->entry.next != NULL as indication that the timer is
pending. So it does __list_del(), entry->next = NULL instead of list_del()
when the timer is deleted.

The ->base field is used for hashed locking only, it is initialized
in init_timer() which sets ->base = per_cpu(tvec_bases). When the
tvec_bases.lock is locked, it means that all timers which are tied
to this base via timer->base are locked, and the base itself is locked
too.

So __run_timers/migrate_timers can safely modify all timers which could
be found on ->tvX lists (pending timers).

When the timer's base is locked, and the timer removed from ->entry list
(which means that _run_timers/migrate_timers can't see this timer), it is
possible to set timer->base = NULL and drop the lock: the timer remains
locked.

This patch adds lock_timer_base() helper, which waits for ->base != NULL,
locks the ->base, and checks it is still the same.

__mod_timer() schedules the timer on the local CPU and changes it's base.
However, it does not lock both old and new bases at once. It locks the
timer via lock_timer_base(), deletes the timer, sets ->base = NULL, and
unlocks old base. Then __mod_timer() locks new_base, sets ->base = new_base,
and adds this timer. This simplifies the code, because AB-BA deadlock is not
possible. __mod_timer() also ensures that the timer's base is not changed
while the timer's handler is running on the old base.

__run_timers(), del_timer() do not change ->base anymore, they only clear
pending flag.

So del_timer_sync() can test timer->base->running_timer == timer to detect
whether it is running or not.

We don't need timer_list->lock anymore, this patch kills it.

We also don't need barriers. del_timer() and __run_timers() used smp_wmb()
before clearing timer's pending flag. It was needed because __mod_timer()
did not lock old_base if the timer is not pending, so __mod_timer()->list_add()
could race with del_timer()->list_del(). With this patch these functions are
serialized through base->lock.

One problem. TIMER_INITIALIZER can't use per_cpu(tvec_bases). So this patch
adds global

        struct timer_base_s {
                spinlock_t lock;
                struct timer_list *running_timer;
        } __init_timer_base;

which is used by TIMER_INITIALIZER. The corresponding fields in tvec_t_base_s
struct are replaced by struct timer_base_s t_base.

It is indeed ugly. But this can't have scalability problems. The global
__init_timer_base.lock is used only when __mod_timer() is called for the first
time AND the timer was compile time initialized. After that the timer migrates
to the local CPU.

Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Renaud Lienhart <renaud.lienhart@free.fr>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 21 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/timer.h b/include/linux/timer.h
index 90db1cc62dd..2e78fedfc06 100644
--- a/include/linux/timer.h
+++ b/include/linux/timer.h
@@ -6,45 +6,33 @@
 #include <linux/spinlock.h>
 #include <linux/stddef.h>
 
-struct tvec_t_base_s;
+struct timer_base_s;
 
 struct timer_list {
 	struct list_head entry;
 	unsigned long expires;
 
-	spinlock_t lock;
 	unsigned long magic;
 
 	void (*function)(unsigned long);
 	unsigned long data;
 
-	struct tvec_t_base_s *base;
+	struct timer_base_s *base;
 };
 
 #define TIMER_MAGIC	0x4b87ad6e
 
+extern struct timer_base_s __init_timer_base;
+
 #define TIMER_INITIALIZER(_function, _expires, _data) {		\
 		.function = (_function),			\
 		.expires = (_expires),				\
 		.data = (_data),				\
-		.base = NULL,					\
+		.base = &__init_timer_base,			\
 		.magic = TIMER_MAGIC,				\
-		.lock = SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED,			\
 	}
 
-/***
- * init_timer - initialize a timer.
- * @timer: the timer to be initialized
- *
- * init_timer() must be done to a timer prior calling *any* of the
- * other timer functions.
- */
-static inline void init_timer(struct timer_list * timer)
-{
-	timer->base = NULL;
-	timer->magic = TIMER_MAGIC;
-	spin_lock_init(&timer->lock);
-}
+void fastcall init_timer(struct timer_list * timer);
 
 /***
  * timer_pending - is a timer pending?
@@ -58,7 +46,7 @@ static inline void init_timer(struct timer_list * timer)
  */
 static inline int timer_pending(const struct timer_list * timer)
 {
-	return timer->base != NULL;
+	return timer->entry.next != NULL;
 }
 
 extern void add_timer_on(struct timer_list *timer, int cpu);
@@ -89,12 +77,12 @@ static inline void add_timer(struct timer_list * timer)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SMP
   extern int del_timer_sync(struct timer_list *timer);
-  extern int del_singleshot_timer_sync(struct timer_list *timer);
 #else
 # define del_timer_sync(t) del_timer(t)
-# define del_singleshot_timer_sync(t) del_timer(t)
 #endif
 
+#define del_singleshot_timer_sync(t) del_timer_sync(t)
+
 extern void init_timers(void);
 extern void run_local_timers(void);
 extern void it_real_fn(unsigned long);