Re: [PATCH v7 linux 1/2] sched/cache: Reduce the overhead of task_cache_work by only scan the visisted cpus

[Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>]

On Mon, 2026-07-20 at 12:22 +0000, Luo Gengkun wrote:
> The overhead of task_cache_work() is high, especially in multi-NUMA systems.
> Currently, task_cache_work() tries to find the pref_llc by scanning all CPUs
> in the system. However, most of these scans are meaningless, such as those
> for CPUs that have never been visited or were accessed a long time ago.
> 
> To address this problem, introduce visited_cpus to track the visited CPUs
> and evict them once they have not been accessed for a duration exceeding
> llc_epoch_affinity_timeout.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Luo Gengkun <luogengkun2@huawei.com>
> ---
>  include/linux/mm_types.h |  6 +++++
>  include/linux/sched.h    |  2 ++
>  kernel/sched/fair.c      | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
>  3 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/mm_types.h b/include/linux/mm_types.h
> index b18c2b2e7d2c..35559079e4d4 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mm_types.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mm_types.h
> @@ -1620,6 +1620,11 @@ static inline int mm_alloc_sched_noprof(struct mm_struct *mm)
>  	if (!pcpu_sched)
>  		return -ENOMEM;
>  
> +	if (!zalloc_cpumask_var(&mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus, GFP_KERNEL)) {
> +		free_percpu(pcpu_sched);
> +		return -ENOMEM;
> +	}
> +
>  	mm_init_sched(mm, pcpu_sched);
>  	return 0;
>  }
> @@ -1630,6 +1635,7 @@ static inline void mm_destroy_sched(struct mm_struct *mm)
>  {
>  	free_percpu(mm->sc_stat.pcpu_sched);
>  	mm->sc_stat.pcpu_sched = NULL;
> +	free_cpumask_var(mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus);
>  }
>  #else /* !CONFIG_SCHED_CACHE */
>  
> diff --git a/include/linux/sched.h b/include/linux/sched.h
> index 373bcc0598d1..b461a71a65da 100644
> --- a/include/linux/sched.h
> +++ b/include/linux/sched.h
> @@ -2388,6 +2388,7 @@ static __always_inline int task_mm_cid(struct task_struct *t)
>  struct sched_cache_time {
>  	u64 runtime;
>  	unsigned long epoch;
> +	unsigned long epoch_last_visit;
>  };
>  
>  struct sched_cache_stat {
> @@ -2398,6 +2399,7 @@ struct sched_cache_stat {
>  	unsigned long next_scan;
>  	unsigned long footprint;
>  	int cpu;
> +	cpumask_var_t visited_cpus;
>  } ____cacheline_aligned_in_smp;
>  
>  #else
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> index d78467ec6ee1..c56b2df66de8 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> @@ -1585,6 +1585,7 @@ void mm_init_sched(struct mm_struct *mm,
>  		pcpu_sched->runtime = 0;
>  		/* a slightly stale cpu epoch is acceptible */
>  		pcpu_sched->epoch = rq->cpu_epoch;
> +		pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit = rq->cpu_epoch;
>  		epoch = rq->cpu_epoch;
>  	}
>  
> @@ -1635,13 +1636,23 @@ static inline void __update_mm_sched(struct rq *rq,
>  	}
>  }
>  
> -static unsigned long fraction_mm_sched(struct rq *rq,
> -				       struct sched_cache_time *pcpu_sched)
> +static unsigned long fraction_mm_sched(int cpu,
> +				       struct mm_struct *mm)
>  {
> +	struct sched_cache_time *pcpu_sched =
> +		per_cpu_ptr(mm->sc_stat.pcpu_sched, cpu);
> +	struct rq *rq = cpu_rq(cpu);
> +
>  	guard(raw_spinlock_irqsave)(&rq->cpu_epoch_lock);
>  
>  	__update_mm_sched(rq, pcpu_sched);
>  
> +	/* Skip the rq that has not been hit for a long time */
> +	if ((rq->cpu_epoch - pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit) > llc_epoch_affinity_timeout) {
> +		cpumask_clear_cpu(cpu, mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus);
> +		return 0;
> +	}
> +
>  	/*
>  	 * Runtime is a geometric series (r=0.5) and as such will sum to twice
>  	 * the accumulation period, this means the multiplcation here should
> @@ -1711,6 +1722,9 @@ void account_mm_sched(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *p, s64 delta_exec)
>  		pcpu_sched->runtime += delta_exec;
>  		rq->cpu_runtime += delta_exec;
>  		epoch = rq->cpu_epoch;
> +		pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit = epoch;

We need to make sure that the epoch_last_visit update is seen by the cpu
running task_cache_work(), before it attempts to do the epoch comparison
and clear the cpu, and causing inconsistency in the visited_cpus.

For example

CPU A (e.g. doing LLC/affinity selection, reading remote pcpu_sched)      CPU B (= `cpu`, running account_mm_sched() locally)
--------------------------------------------------------------------      -----------------------------------------------------
read pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit  (stale, old value)
  -> looks like it timed out
                                                                            pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit = epoch   (fresh visit!)
                                                                            cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, visited_cpus)     (correctly marks it visited)
cpumask_clear_cpu(cpu, visited_cpus)   <-- wipes out the fresh set!


Perhaps we will need a memory barrier and double check for expiration before we clear
the visited mask.

 if (rq->cpu_epoch - READ_ONCE(pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit > llc_epoch_affinity_timeout &&
	cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, mm-sc_stat.visited_cpus)) {

	/*
	 * account_mm_sched() may have raced in right here and refreshed
	 * epoch_last_visit + set the bit again after we read it as stale.
	 * Re-check timeout after applying memory barrier.
	 */
	smp_mb();
	if ((rq->cpu_epoch - READ_ONCE(pcpu_sched->epoch_last_visit)) > llc_epoch_affinity_timeout))
		cpumask_clear_cpu(cpu, mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus);	

 }

This fix is ugly and there's probably a better way.

> +		if (!cpumask_test_cpu(cpu_of(rq), mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus))
> +			cpumask_set_cpu(cpu_of(rq), mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus);
>  	}
>  
>  	/*
> @@ -1867,6 +1881,18 @@ static void task_cache_work(struct callback_head *work)
>  		guard(rcu)();
>  
>  		get_scan_cpumasks(cpus, p);


Now that we know exactly which cpus to scan from visited_cpus,
we can get rid of get_scan_cpumasks(), which attempts to limit
the scope of cpu scan.

Thanks.

Tim


> +		/*
> +		 * Data race: While evaluating the visited_cpus without
> +		 * a lock, a CPU could be concurrently set by
> +		 * account_mm_sched(), meaning the scan might skip the newly
> +		 * visited CPU if the bit changes during the scan. This is
> +		 * a deliberate trade-off between accuracy and efficiency:
> +		 * locking would prevent this race but incur extra overhead.
> +		 * The missed runtime contribution is negligible because it
> +		 * implies this process hasn't run on that CPU for a long
> +		 * time, and will be captured in the next cycle.
> +		 */
> +		cpumask_and(cpus, cpus, mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus);
>  
>  		for_each_cpu(cpu, cpus) {
>  			/* XXX sched_cluster_active */
> @@ -1877,19 +1903,21 @@ static void task_cache_work(struct callback_head *work)
>  			if (!sd)
>  				continue;
>  
> -			for_each_cpu(i, sched_domain_span(sd)) {
> -				occ = fraction_mm_sched(cpu_rq(i),
> -							per_cpu_ptr(mm->sc_stat.pcpu_sched, i));
> +			for_each_cpu_and(i, sched_domain_span(sd), mm->sc_stat.visited_cpus) {
> +				cur = rcu_dereference_all(cpu_rq(i)->curr);
> +				if (cur && !(cur->flags & (PF_EXITING | PF_KTHREAD)) &&
> +				    cur->mm == mm)
> +					nr_running++;
> +
> +				occ = fraction_mm_sched(i, mm);
> +				if (occ == 0)
> +					continue;
> +
>  				a_occ += occ;
>  				if (occ > m_occ) {
>  					m_occ = occ;
>  					m_cpu = i;
>  				}
> -
> -				cur = rcu_dereference_all(cpu_rq(i)->curr);
> -				if (cur && !(cur->flags & (PF_EXITING | PF_KTHREAD)) &&
> -				    cur->mm == mm)
> -					nr_running++;
>  			}
>  
>  			/*