From c5905afb0ee6550b42c49213da1c22d67316c194 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ingo Molnar Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:31:31 +0100 Subject: static keys: Introduce 'struct static_key', static_key_true()/false() and static_key_slow_[inc|dec]() So here's a boot tested patch on top of Jason's series that does all the cleanups I talked about and turns jump labels into a more intuitive to use facility. It should also address the various misconceptions and confusions that surround jump labels. Typical usage scenarios: #include struct static_key key = STATIC_KEY_INIT_TRUE; if (static_key_false(&key)) do unlikely code else do likely code Or: if (static_key_true(&key)) do likely code else do unlikely code The static key is modified via: static_key_slow_inc(&key); ... static_key_slow_dec(&key); The 'slow' prefix makes it abundantly clear that this is an expensive operation. I've updated all in-kernel code to use this everywhere. Note that I (intentionally) have not pushed through the rename blindly through to the lowest levels: the actual jump-label patching arch facility should be named like that, so we want to decouple jump labels from the static-key facility a bit. On non-jump-label enabled architectures static keys default to likely()/unlikely() branches. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar Acked-by: Jason Baron Acked-by: Steven Rostedt Cc: a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl Cc: mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com Cc: davem@davemloft.net Cc: ddaney.cavm@gmail.com Cc: Linus Torvalds Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20120222085809.GA26397@elte.hu Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar --- arch/Kconfig | 29 ++++++++++++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) (limited to 'arch/Kconfig') diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig index 4f55c736be11..5b448a74d0f7 100644 --- a/arch/Kconfig +++ b/arch/Kconfig @@ -47,18 +47,29 @@ config KPROBES If in doubt, say "N". config JUMP_LABEL - bool "Optimize trace point call sites" + bool "Optimize very unlikely/likely branches" depends on HAVE_ARCH_JUMP_LABEL help + This option enables a transparent branch optimization that + makes certain almost-always-true or almost-always-false branch + conditions even cheaper to execute within the kernel. + + Certain performance-sensitive kernel code, such as trace points, + scheduler functionality, networking code and KVM have such + branches and include support for this optimization technique. + If it is detected that the compiler has support for "asm goto", - the kernel will compile trace point locations with just a - nop instruction. When trace points are enabled, the nop will - be converted to a jump to the trace function. This technique - lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction of the - processor. - - On i386, options added to the compiler flags may increase - the size of the kernel slightly. + the kernel will compile such branches with just a nop + instruction. When the condition flag is toggled to true, the + nop will be converted to a jump instruction to execute the + conditional block of instructions. + + This technique lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction + of the processor and generally makes the kernel faster. The update + of the condition is slower, but those are always very rare. + + ( On 32-bit x86, the necessary options added to the compiler + flags may increase the size of the kernel slightly. ) config OPTPROBES def_bool y -- cgit v1.2.3