summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorMauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org>2019-06-12 14:53:03 -0300
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2019-06-14 14:32:18 -0600
commitd6a3b247627a3bc0551504eb305d624cc6fb5453 (patch)
treed2605772889c71e02d4aeda5a616567153d68b6a /Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst
parentd223884089734cc637c4e5458870d69f6ded9f89 (diff)
docs: scheduler: convert docs to ReST and rename to *.rst
In order to prepare to add them to the Kernel API book, convert the files to ReST format. The conversion is actually: - add blank lines and identation in order to identify paragraphs; - fix tables markups; - add some lists markups; - mark literal blocks; - adjust title markups. At its new index.rst, let's add a :orphan: while this is not linked to the main index.rst file, in order to avoid build warnings. Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst76
1 files changed, 76 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0eaec669790a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/scheduler/sched-arch.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+=================================================================
+CPU Scheduler implementation hints for architecture specific code
+=================================================================
+
+ Nick Piggin, 2005
+
+Context switch
+==============
+1. Runqueue locking
+By default, the switch_to arch function is called with the runqueue
+locked. This is usually not a problem unless switch_to may need to
+take the runqueue lock. This is usually due to a wake up operation in
+the context switch. See arch/ia64/include/asm/switch_to.h for an example.
+
+To request the scheduler call switch_to with the runqueue unlocked,
+you must `#define __ARCH_WANT_UNLOCKED_CTXSW` in a header file
+(typically the one where switch_to is defined).
+
+Unlocked context switches introduce only a very minor performance
+penalty to the core scheduler implementation in the CONFIG_SMP case.
+
+CPU idle
+========
+Your cpu_idle routines need to obey the following rules:
+
+1. Preempt should now disabled over idle routines. Should only
+ be enabled to call schedule() then disabled again.
+
+2. need_resched/TIF_NEED_RESCHED is only ever set, and will never
+ be cleared until the running task has called schedule(). Idle
+ threads need only ever query need_resched, and may never set or
+ clear it.
+
+3. When cpu_idle finds (need_resched() == 'true'), it should call
+ schedule(). It should not call schedule() otherwise.
+
+4. The only time interrupts need to be disabled when checking
+ need_resched is if we are about to sleep the processor until
+ the next interrupt (this doesn't provide any protection of
+ need_resched, it prevents losing an interrupt):
+
+ 4a. Common problem with this type of sleep appears to be::
+
+ local_irq_disable();
+ if (!need_resched()) {
+ local_irq_enable();
+ *** resched interrupt arrives here ***
+ __asm__("sleep until next interrupt");
+ }
+
+5. TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG can be set by idle routines that do not
+ need an interrupt to wake them up when need_resched goes high.
+ In other words, they must be periodically polling need_resched,
+ although it may be reasonable to do some background work or enter
+ a low CPU priority.
+
+ - 5a. If TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG is set, and we do decide to enter
+ an interrupt sleep, it needs to be cleared then a memory
+ barrier issued (followed by a test of need_resched with
+ interrupts disabled, as explained in 3).
+
+arch/x86/kernel/process.c has examples of both polling and
+sleeping idle functions.
+
+
+Possible arch/ problems
+=======================
+
+Possible arch problems I found (and either tried to fix or didn't):
+
+ia64 - is safe_halt call racy vs interrupts? (does it sleep?) (See #4a)
+
+sh64 - Is sleeping racy vs interrupts? (See #4a)
+
+sparc - IRQs on at this point(?), change local_irq_save to _disable.
+ - TODO: needs secondary CPUs to disable preempt (See #1)