rcu: reduce the number of spurious RCU_SOFTIRQ invocations

Lai Jiangshan noted that up to 10% of the RCU_SOFTIRQ are spurious, and
traced this down to the fact that the current grace-period machinery
will uselessly raise RCU_SOFTIRQ when a given CPU needs to go through
a quiescent state, but has not yet done so.  In this situation, there
might well be nothing that RCU_SOFTIRQ can do, and the overhead can be
worth worrying about in the ksoftirqd case.  This patch therefore avoids
raising RCU_SOFTIRQ in this situation.

Changes since v1 (http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/3/30/122 from Lai Jiangshan):

o	Omit the rcu_qs_pending() prechecks, as they aren't that
	much less expensive than the quiescent-state checks.

o	Merge with the set_need_resched() patch that reduces IPIs.

o	Add the new n_rp_report_qs field to the rcu_pending tracing output.

o	Update the tracing documentation accordingly.

Signed-off-by: Lai Jiangshan <laijs@cn.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt b/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt
index 8608fd8..efd8cc9 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt
@@ -256,23 +256,23 @@ o	Each element of the form "1/1 0:127 ^0" represents one struct
 The output of "cat rcu/rcu_pending" looks as follows:
 
 rcu_sched:
-  0 np=255892 qsp=53936 cbr=0 cng=14417 gpc=10033 gps=24320 nf=6445 nn=146741
-  1 np=261224 qsp=54638 cbr=0 cng=25723 gpc=16310 gps=2849 nf=5912 nn=155792
-  2 np=237496 qsp=49664 cbr=0 cng=2762 gpc=45478 gps=1762 nf=1201 nn=136629
-  3 np=236249 qsp=48766 cbr=0 cng=286 gpc=48049 gps=1218 nf=207 nn=137723
-  4 np=221310 qsp=46850 cbr=0 cng=26 gpc=43161 gps=4634 nf=3529 nn=123110
-  5 np=237332 qsp=48449 cbr=0 cng=54 gpc=47920 gps=3252 nf=201 nn=137456
-  6 np=219995 qsp=46718 cbr=0 cng=50 gpc=42098 gps=6093 nf=4202 nn=120834
-  7 np=249893 qsp=49390 cbr=0 cng=72 gpc=38400 gps=17102 nf=41 nn=144888
+  0 np=255892 qsp=53936 rpq=85 cbr=0 cng=14417 gpc=10033 gps=24320 nf=6445 nn=146741
+  1 np=261224 qsp=54638 rpq=33 cbr=0 cng=25723 gpc=16310 gps=2849 nf=5912 nn=155792
+  2 np=237496 qsp=49664 rpq=23 cbr=0 cng=2762 gpc=45478 gps=1762 nf=1201 nn=136629
+  3 np=236249 qsp=48766 rpq=98 cbr=0 cng=286 gpc=48049 gps=1218 nf=207 nn=137723
+  4 np=221310 qsp=46850 rpq=7 cbr=0 cng=26 gpc=43161 gps=4634 nf=3529 nn=123110
+  5 np=237332 qsp=48449 rpq=9 cbr=0 cng=54 gpc=47920 gps=3252 nf=201 nn=137456
+  6 np=219995 qsp=46718 rpq=12 cbr=0 cng=50 gpc=42098 gps=6093 nf=4202 nn=120834
+  7 np=249893 qsp=49390 rpq=42 cbr=0 cng=72 gpc=38400 gps=17102 nf=41 nn=144888
 rcu_bh:
-  0 np=146741 qsp=1419 cbr=0 cng=6 gpc=0 gps=0 nf=2 nn=145314
-  1 np=155792 qsp=12597 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=8 nf=3 nn=143180
-  2 np=136629 qsp=18680 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=7 gps=6 nf=0 nn=117936
-  3 np=137723 qsp=2843 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=10 gps=7 nf=0 nn=134863
-  4 np=123110 qsp=12433 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=2 nf=0 nn=110671
-  5 np=137456 qsp=4210 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=5 nf=0 nn=133235
-  6 np=120834 qsp=9902 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=3 nf=2 nn=110921
-  7 np=144888 qsp=26336 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=8 gps=2 nf=0 nn=118542
+  0 np=146741 qsp=1419 rpq=6 cbr=0 cng=6 gpc=0 gps=0 nf=2 nn=145314
+  1 np=155792 qsp=12597 rpq=3 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=8 nf=3 nn=143180
+  2 np=136629 qsp=18680 rpq=1 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=7 gps=6 nf=0 nn=117936
+  3 np=137723 qsp=2843 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=10 gps=7 nf=0 nn=134863
+  4 np=123110 qsp=12433 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=2 nf=0 nn=110671
+  5 np=137456 qsp=4210 rpq=1 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=5 nf=0 nn=133235
+  6 np=120834 qsp=9902 rpq=2 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=3 nf=2 nn=110921
+  7 np=144888 qsp=26336 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=8 gps=2 nf=0 nn=118542
 
 As always, this is once again split into "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh"
 portions, with CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels having an additional
@@ -284,6 +284,9 @@ o	"np" is the number of times that __rcu_pending() has been invoked
 o	"qsp" is the number of times that the RCU was waiting for a
 	quiescent state from this CPU.
 
+o	"rpq" is the number of times that the CPU had passed through
+	a quiescent state, but not yet reported it to RCU.
+
 o	"cbr" is the number of times that this CPU had RCU callbacks
 	that had passed through a grace period, and were thus ready
 	to be invoked.