sched_ext: Implement tickless support

Allow BPF schedulers to indicate tickless operation by setting p->scx.slice
to SCX_SLICE_INF. A CPU whose current task has infinte slice goes into
tickless operation.

scx_central is updated to use tickless operations for all tasks and
instead use a BPF timer to expire slices. This also uses the SCX_ENQ_PREEMPT
and task state tracking added by the previous patches.

Currently, there is no way to pin the timer on the central CPU, so it may
end up on one of the worker CPUs; however, outside of that, the worker CPUs
can go tickless both while running sched_ext tasks and idling.

With schbench running, scx_central shows:

  root@test ~# grep ^LOC /proc/interrupts; sleep 10; grep ^LOC /proc/interrupts
  LOC:     142024        656        664        449   Local timer interrupts
  LOC:     161663        663        665        449   Local timer interrupts

Without it:

  root@test ~ [SIGINT]# grep ^LOC /proc/interrupts; sleep 10; grep ^LOC /proc/interrupts
  LOC:     188778       3142       3793       3993   Local timer interrupts
  LOC:     198993       5314       6323       6438   Local timer interrupts

While scx_central itself is too barebone to be useful as a
production scheduler, a more featureful central scheduler can be built using
the same approach. Google's experience shows that such an approach can have
significant benefits for certain applications such as VM hosting.

v4: Allow operation even if BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN is not available.

v3: Pin the central scheduler's timer on the central_cpu using
    BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN.

v2: Convert to BPF inline iterators.

Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: David Vernet <dvernet@meta.com>
Acked-by: Josh Don <joshdon@google.com>
Acked-by: Hao Luo <haoluo@google.com>
Acked-by: Barret Rhoden <brho@google.com>

2 files changed, 181 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
index 428b2262faa3..1d8fd570eaa7 100644
--- a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
+++ b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.bpf.c
@@ -13,7 +13,26 @@
  *    through per-CPU BPF queues. The current design is chosen to maximally
  *    utilize and verify various SCX mechanisms such as LOCAL_ON dispatching.
  *
- * b. Preemption
+ * b. Tickless operation
+ *
+ *    All tasks are dispatched with the infinite slice which allows stopping the
+ *    ticks on CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL kernels running with the proper nohz_full
+ *    parameter. The tickless operation can be observed through
+ *    /proc/interrupts.
+ *
+ *    Periodic switching is enforced by a periodic timer checking all CPUs and
+ *    preempting them as necessary. Unfortunately, BPF timer currently doesn't
+ *    have a way to pin to a specific CPU, so the periodic timer isn't pinned to
+ *    the central CPU.
+ *
+ * c. Preemption
+ *
+ *    Kthreads are unconditionally queued to the head of a matching local dsq
+ *    and dispatched with SCX_DSQ_PREEMPT. This ensures that a kthread is always
+ *    prioritized over user threads, which is required for ensuring forward
+ *    progress as e.g. the periodic timer may run on a ksoftirqd and if the
+ *    ksoftirqd gets starved by a user thread, there may not be anything else to
+ *    vacate that user thread.
  *
  *    SCX_KICK_PREEMPT is used to trigger scheduling and CPUs to move to the
  *    next tasks.
@@ -32,14 +51,17 @@ char _license[] SEC("license") = "GPL";
 
 enum {
 	FALLBACK_DSQ_ID		= 0,
+	MS_TO_NS		= 1000LLU * 1000,
+	TIMER_INTERVAL_NS	= 1 * MS_TO_NS,
 };
 
 const volatile s32 central_cpu;
 const volatile u32 nr_cpu_ids = 1;	/* !0 for veristat, set during init */
 const volatile u64 slice_ns = SCX_SLICE_DFL;
 
+bool timer_pinned = true;
 u64 nr_total, nr_locals, nr_queued, nr_lost_pids;
-u64 nr_dispatches, nr_mismatches, nr_retries;
+u64 nr_timers, nr_dispatches, nr_mismatches, nr_retries;
 u64 nr_overflows;
 
 UEI_DEFINE(uei);
@@ -52,6 +74,23 @@ struct {
 
 /* can't use percpu map due to bad lookups */
 bool RESIZABLE_ARRAY(data, cpu_gimme_task);
+u64 RESIZABLE_ARRAY(data, cpu_started_at);
+
+struct central_timer {
+	struct bpf_timer timer;
+};
+
+struct {
+	__uint(type, BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARRAY);
+	__uint(max_entries, 1);
+	__type(key, u32);
+	__type(value, struct central_timer);
+} central_timer SEC(".maps");
+
+static bool vtime_before(u64 a, u64 b)
+{
+	return (s64)(a - b) < 0;
+}
 
 s32 BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_select_cpu, struct task_struct *p,
 		   s32 prev_cpu, u64 wake_flags)
@@ -71,9 +110,22 @@ void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_enqueue, struct task_struct *p, u64 enq_flags)
 
 	__sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_total, 1);
 
+	/*
+	 * Push per-cpu kthreads at the head of local dsq's and preempt the
+	 * corresponding CPU. This ensures that e.g. ksoftirqd isn't blocked
+	 * behind other threads which is necessary for forward progress
+	 * guarantee as we depend on the BPF timer which may run from ksoftirqd.
+	 */
+	if ((p->flags & PF_KTHREAD) && p->nr_cpus_allowed == 1) {
+		__sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_locals, 1);
+		scx_bpf_dispatch(p, SCX_DSQ_LOCAL, SCX_SLICE_INF,
+				 enq_flags | SCX_ENQ_PREEMPT);
+		return;
+	}
+
 	if (bpf_map_push_elem(&central_q, &pid, 0)) {
 		__sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_overflows, 1);
-		scx_bpf_dispatch(p, FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, SCX_SLICE_DFL, enq_flags);
+		scx_bpf_dispatch(p, FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, SCX_SLICE_INF, enq_flags);
 		return;
 	}
 
@@ -106,7 +158,7 @@ static bool dispatch_to_cpu(s32 cpu)
 		 */
 		if (!bpf_cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, p->cpus_ptr)) {
 			__sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_mismatches, 1);
-			scx_bpf_dispatch(p, FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, SCX_SLICE_DFL, 0);
+			scx_bpf_dispatch(p, FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, SCX_SLICE_INF, 0);
 			bpf_task_release(p);
 			/*
 			 * We might run out of dispatch buffer slots if we continue dispatching
@@ -120,7 +172,7 @@ static bool dispatch_to_cpu(s32 cpu)
 		}
 
 		/* dispatch to local and mark that @cpu doesn't need more */
-		scx_bpf_dispatch(p, SCX_DSQ_LOCAL_ON | cpu, SCX_SLICE_DFL, 0);
+		scx_bpf_dispatch(p, SCX_DSQ_LOCAL_ON | cpu, SCX_SLICE_INF, 0);
 
 		if (cpu != central_cpu)
 			scx_bpf_kick_cpu(cpu, SCX_KICK_IDLE);
@@ -188,9 +240,102 @@ void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_dispatch, s32 cpu, struct task_struct *prev)
 	}
 }
 
+void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_running, struct task_struct *p)
+{
+	s32 cpu = scx_bpf_task_cpu(p);
+	u64 *started_at = ARRAY_ELEM_PTR(cpu_started_at, cpu, nr_cpu_ids);
+	if (started_at)
+		*started_at = bpf_ktime_get_ns() ?: 1;	/* 0 indicates idle */
+}
+
+void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_stopping, struct task_struct *p, bool runnable)
+{
+	s32 cpu = scx_bpf_task_cpu(p);
+	u64 *started_at = ARRAY_ELEM_PTR(cpu_started_at, cpu, nr_cpu_ids);
+	if (started_at)
+		*started_at = 0;
+}
+
+static int central_timerfn(void *map, int *key, struct bpf_timer *timer)
+{
+	u64 now = bpf_ktime_get_ns();
+	u64 nr_to_kick = nr_queued;
+	s32 i, curr_cpu;
+
+	curr_cpu = bpf_get_smp_processor_id();
+	if (timer_pinned && (curr_cpu != central_cpu)) {
+		scx_bpf_error("Central timer ran on CPU %d, not central CPU %d",
+			      curr_cpu, central_cpu);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	bpf_for(i, 0, nr_cpu_ids) {
+		s32 cpu = (nr_timers + i) % nr_cpu_ids;
+		u64 *started_at;
+
+		if (cpu == central_cpu)
+			continue;
+
+		/* kick iff the current one exhausted its slice */
+		started_at = ARRAY_ELEM_PTR(cpu_started_at, cpu, nr_cpu_ids);
+		if (started_at && *started_at &&
+		    vtime_before(now, *started_at + slice_ns))
+			continue;
+
+		/* and there's something pending */
+		if (scx_bpf_dsq_nr_queued(FALLBACK_DSQ_ID) ||
+		    scx_bpf_dsq_nr_queued(SCX_DSQ_LOCAL_ON | cpu))
+			;
+		else if (nr_to_kick)
+			nr_to_kick--;
+		else
+			continue;
+
+		scx_bpf_kick_cpu(cpu, SCX_KICK_PREEMPT);
+	}
+
+	bpf_timer_start(timer, TIMER_INTERVAL_NS, BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN);
+	__sync_fetch_and_add(&nr_timers, 1);
+	return 0;
+}
+
 int BPF_STRUCT_OPS_SLEEPABLE(central_init)
 {
-	return scx_bpf_create_dsq(FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, -1);
+	u32 key = 0;
+	struct bpf_timer *timer;
+	int ret;
+
+	ret = scx_bpf_create_dsq(FALLBACK_DSQ_ID, -1);
+	if (ret)
+		return ret;
+
+	timer = bpf_map_lookup_elem(&central_timer, &key);
+	if (!timer)
+		return -ESRCH;
+
+	if (bpf_get_smp_processor_id() != central_cpu) {
+		scx_bpf_error("init from non-central CPU");
+		return -EINVAL;
+	}
+
+	bpf_timer_init(timer, &central_timer, CLOCK_MONOTONIC);
+	bpf_timer_set_callback(timer, central_timerfn);
+
+	ret = bpf_timer_start(timer, TIMER_INTERVAL_NS, BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN);
+	/*
+	 * BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN is pretty new (>=6.7). If we're running in a
+	 * kernel which doesn't have it, bpf_timer_start() will return -EINVAL.
+	 * Retry without the PIN. This would be the perfect use case for
+	 * bpf_core_enum_value_exists() but the enum type doesn't have a name
+	 * and can't be used with bpf_core_enum_value_exists(). Oh well...
+	 */
+	if (ret == -EINVAL) {
+		timer_pinned = false;
+		ret = bpf_timer_start(timer, TIMER_INTERVAL_NS, 0);
+	}
+	if (ret)
+		scx_bpf_error("bpf_timer_start failed (%d)", ret);
+	return ret;
 }
 
 void BPF_STRUCT_OPS(central_exit, struct scx_exit_info *ei)
@@ -209,6 +354,8 @@ SCX_OPS_DEFINE(central_ops,
 	       .select_cpu		= (void *)central_select_cpu,
 	       .enqueue			= (void *)central_enqueue,
 	       .dispatch		= (void *)central_dispatch,
+	       .running			= (void *)central_running,
+	       .stopping		= (void *)central_stopping,
 	       .init			= (void *)central_init,
 	       .exit			= (void *)central_exit,
 	       .name			= "central");
diff --git a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.c b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.c
index 5f09fc666a63..fb3f50886552 100644
--- a/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.c
+++ b/tools/sched_ext/scx_central.c
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	struct bpf_link *link;
 	__u64 seq = 0;
 	__s32 opt;
+	cpu_set_t *cpuset;
 
 	libbpf_set_print(libbpf_print_fn);
 	signal(SIGINT, sigint_handler);
@@ -77,10 +78,35 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	/* Resize arrays so their element count is equal to cpu count. */
 	RESIZE_ARRAY(skel, data, cpu_gimme_task, skel->rodata->nr_cpu_ids);
+	RESIZE_ARRAY(skel, data, cpu_started_at, skel->rodata->nr_cpu_ids);
 
 	SCX_OPS_LOAD(skel, central_ops, scx_central, uei);
+
+	/*
+	 * Affinitize the loading thread to the central CPU, as:
+	 * - That's where the BPF timer is first invoked in the BPF program.
+	 * - We probably don't want this user space component to take up a core
+	 *   from a task that would benefit from avoiding preemption on one of
+	 *   the tickless cores.
+	 *
+	 * Until BPF supports pinning the timer, it's not guaranteed that it
+	 * will always be invoked on the central CPU. In practice, this
+	 * suffices the majority of the time.
+	 */
+	cpuset = CPU_ALLOC(skel->rodata->nr_cpu_ids);
+	SCX_BUG_ON(!cpuset, "Failed to allocate cpuset");
+	CPU_ZERO(cpuset);
+	CPU_SET(skel->rodata->central_cpu, cpuset);
+	SCX_BUG_ON(sched_setaffinity(0, sizeof(cpuset), cpuset),
+		   "Failed to affinitize to central CPU %d (max %d)",
+		   skel->rodata->central_cpu, skel->rodata->nr_cpu_ids - 1);
+	CPU_FREE(cpuset);
+
 	link = SCX_OPS_ATTACH(skel, central_ops, scx_central);
 
+	if (!skel->data->timer_pinned)
+		printf("WARNING : BPF_F_TIMER_CPU_PIN not available, timer not pinned to central\n");
+
 	while (!exit_req && !UEI_EXITED(skel, uei)) {
 		printf("[SEQ %llu]\n", seq++);
 		printf("total   :%10" PRIu64 "    local:%10" PRIu64 "   queued:%10" PRIu64 "  lost:%10" PRIu64 "\n",
@@ -88,7 +114,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		       skel->bss->nr_locals,
 		       skel->bss->nr_queued,
 		       skel->bss->nr_lost_pids);
-		printf("                    dispatch:%10" PRIu64 " mismatch:%10" PRIu64 " retry:%10" PRIu64 "\n",
+		printf("timer   :%10" PRIu64 " dispatch:%10" PRIu64 " mismatch:%10" PRIu64 " retry:%10" PRIu64 "\n",
+		       skel->bss->nr_timers,
 		       skel->bss->nr_dispatches,
 		       skel->bss->nr_mismatches,
 		       skel->bss->nr_retries);