When a CPU is entering dyntick-idle mode, tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick()
calls rcu_needs_cpu() see if RCU needs that CPU, and, if not, computes the
next wakeup time based on the timer wheels. Only later, when actually
entering the idle loop, rcu_prepare_for_idle() will be invoked. In some
cases, rcu_prepare_for_idle() will post timers to wake the CPU back up.
But all for naught: The next wakeup time for the CPU has already been
computed, and posting a timer afterwards does not force that wakeup
time to be recomputed. This means that rcu_prepare_for_idle()'s have
no effect.
This is not a problem on a busy system because something else will wake
up the CPU soon enough. However, on lightly loaded systems, the CPU
might stay asleep for a considerable length of time. If that CPU has
a callback that the rest of the system is waiting on, the system might
run very slowly or (in theory) even hang.
This commit avoids this problem by having rcu_needs_cpu() give
tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick() an estimate of when RCU will need the CPU
to wake back up, which tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick() takes into account
when programming the CPU's wakeup time. An alternative approach is
for rcu_prepare_for_idle() to use hrtimers instead of normal timers,
but timers are much more efficient than are hrtimers for frequently
and repeatedly posting and cancelling a given timer, which is exactly
what RCU_FAST_NO_HZ does.
Reported-by: Pascal Chapperon <pascal.chapperon@wanadoo.fr>
Reported-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paul.mckenney@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Tested-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Tested-by: Pascal Chapperon <pascal.chapperon@wanadoo.fr>
aa9b16306e