Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next RFC 2/5] vhost: introduce helper to prefetch desc index

From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2017 22:19:47 +0300

On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 04:02:32PM +0800, Jason Wang wrote:
> This patch introduces vhost_prefetch_desc_indices() which could batch
> descriptor indices fetching and used ring updating. This intends to
> reduce the cache misses of indices fetching and updating and reduce
> cache line bounce when virtqueue is almost full. copy_to_user() was
> used in order to benefit from modern cpus that support fast string
> copy. Batched virtqueue processing will be the first user.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jason Wang <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  drivers/vhost/vhost.c | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  drivers/vhost/vhost.h |  3 +++
>  2 files changed, 58 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
> index f87ec75..8424166d 100644
> --- a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
> +++ b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
> @@ -2437,6 +2437,61 @@ struct vhost_msg_node *vhost_dequeue_msg(struct vhost_dev *dev,
>  }
>  EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(vhost_dequeue_msg);
>  
> +int vhost_prefetch_desc_indices(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq,
> +				struct vring_used_elem *heads,
> +				u16 num, bool used_update)

why do you need to combine used update with prefetch?

> +{
> +	int ret, ret2;
> +	u16 last_avail_idx, last_used_idx, total, copied;
> +	__virtio16 avail_idx;
> +	struct vring_used_elem __user *used;
> +	int i;
> +
> +	if (unlikely(vhost_get_avail(vq, avail_idx, &vq->avail->idx))) {
> +		vq_err(vq, "Failed to access avail idx at %p\n",
> +		       &vq->avail->idx);
> +		return -EFAULT;
> +	}
> +	last_avail_idx = vq->last_avail_idx & (vq->num - 1);
> +	vq->avail_idx = vhost16_to_cpu(vq, avail_idx);
> +	total = vq->avail_idx - vq->last_avail_idx;
> +	ret = total = min(total, num);
> +
> +	for (i = 0; i < ret; i++) {
> +		ret2 = vhost_get_avail(vq, heads[i].id,
> +				      &vq->avail->ring[last_avail_idx]);
> +		if (unlikely(ret2)) {
> +			vq_err(vq, "Failed to get descriptors\n");
> +			return -EFAULT;
> +		}
> +		last_avail_idx = (last_avail_idx + 1) & (vq->num - 1);
> +	}
> +
> +	if (!used_update)
> +		return ret;
> +
> +	last_used_idx = vq->last_used_idx & (vq->num - 1);
> +	while (total) {
> +		copied = min((u16)(vq->num - last_used_idx), total);
> +		ret2 = vhost_copy_to_user(vq,
> +					  &vq->used->ring[last_used_idx],
> +					  &heads[ret - total],
> +					  copied * sizeof(*used));
> +
> +		if (unlikely(ret2)) {
> +			vq_err(vq, "Failed to update used ring!\n");
> +			return -EFAULT;
> +		}
> +
> +		last_used_idx = 0;
> +		total -= copied;
> +	}
> +
> +	/* Only get avail ring entries after they have been exposed by guest. */
> +	smp_rmb();

Barrier before return is a very confusing API. I guess it's designed to
be used in a specific way to make it necessary - but what is it?

> +	return ret;
> +}
> +EXPORT_SYMBOL(vhost_prefetch_desc_indices);
>  
>  static int __init vhost_init(void)
>  {
> diff --git a/drivers/vhost/vhost.h b/drivers/vhost/vhost.h
> index 39ff897..16c2cb6 100644
> --- a/drivers/vhost/vhost.h
> +++ b/drivers/vhost/vhost.h
> @@ -228,6 +228,9 @@ ssize_t vhost_chr_read_iter(struct vhost_dev *dev, struct iov_iter *to,
>  ssize_t vhost_chr_write_iter(struct vhost_dev *dev,
>  			     struct iov_iter *from);
>  int vhost_init_device_iotlb(struct vhost_dev *d, bool enabled);
> +int vhost_prefetch_desc_indices(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq,
> +				struct vring_used_elem *heads,
> +				u16 num, bool used_update);
>  
>  #define vq_err(vq, fmt, ...) do {                                  \
>  		pr_debug(pr_fmt(fmt), ##__VA_ARGS__);       \
> -- 
> 2.7.4