This patchset is an implementation of futex2 interface on top of existing futex.c code.
* What happened to the current futex()?
The futex() is implemented using a multiplexed interface that doesn't scale well and gives headaches to people. We don't want to add more features there.
* New features at futex2()
** NUMA-awareness
At the current implementation, all futex kernel side infrastructure is stored on a single node. Given that, all futex() calls issued by processors that aren't located on that node will have a memory access penalty when doing it.
** Variable sized futexes
Futexes are used to implement atomic operations in userspace. Supporting 8, 16, 32 and 64 bit sized futexes allows user libraries to implement all those sizes in a performant way. Thanks Boost devs for feedback: https://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2021/05/251508.php
Embedded systems or anything with memory constrains could benefit of using smaller sizes for the futex userspace integer.
** Wait on multiple futexes
Proton's (a set of compatibility tools to run Windows games) fork of Wine benefits of this feature to implement WaitForMultipleObjects from Win32 in a performant way. Native game engines will benefit from this as well, given that this is a common wait pattern for games.
* The interface
The new interface has one syscall per operation as opposed to the current multiplexing one. The details can be found in the following patches, but this is a high level summary of what the interface can do:
- Supports wake/wait semantics, as in futex() - Supports requeue operations, similarly as FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE, but with individual flags for each address - Supports waiting for a vector of futexes, using a new syscall named futex_waitv()
- The following features will be implemented in next patchset versions: - Supports variable sized futexes (8bits, 16bits, 32bits and 64bits) - Supports NUMA-awareness operations, where the user can specify on which memory node would like to operate
* The patchset
Given that futex2 reuses futex code, the patches make futex.c functions public and modify them as needed.
This patchset can be also found at my git tree:
https://gitlab.collabora.com/tonyk/linux/-/tree/futex2-dev
- Patch 1: Implements 32bit wait/wake
- Patches 2-3: Implement waitv and requeue.
- Patch 4: Add a documentation file which details the interface and the internal implementation.
- Patches 5-10: Selftests for all operations along with perf support for futex2.
- Patch 11: Proof of concept of waking threads at waitpid(), not to be merged as it is.
* Testing
** Stability
- glibc[1]: nptl's low level locking was modified to use futex2 API (except for PI). All nptl/ tests passed.
- Proton's Wine: Proton/Wine was modified in order to use futex2() for the emulation of Windows NT sync mechanisms based on futex, called "fsync". Triple-A games with huge CPU's loads and tons of parallel jobs worked as expected when compared with the previous FUTEX_WAIT_MULTIPLE implementation at futex(). Some games issue 42k futex2() calls per second.
- perf: The perf benchmarks tests can also be used to stress the interface, and they can be found in this patchset.
[1] https://gitlab.collabora.com/tonyk/glibc/-/tree/futex2-dev
** Performance
- Using perf, no significant difference was measured when comparing futex() and futex2() for the following benchmarks: hash, wake and wake-parallel.
- I measured a 15% overhead for the perf's requeue benchmark, comparing futex2() to futex(). Requeue patch provides more details about why this happens and how to overcome this.
* Changelog
Changes from v4: - Use existing futex.c code when possible - Cleaned up cover letter, check v4 for a more verbose version v4: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210603195924.361327-1-andrealmeid@collabora.c...
André Almeida (11): futex2: Implement wait and wake functions futex2: Implement vectorized wait futex2: Implement requeue operation docs: locking: futex2: Add documentation selftests: futex2: Add wake/wait test selftests: futex2: Add timeout test selftests: futex2: Add wouldblock test selftests: futex2: Add waitv test selftests: futex2: Add requeue test perf bench: Add futex2 benchmark tests kernel: Enable waitpid() for futex2
Documentation/locking/futex2.rst | 185 ++++++ Documentation/locking/index.rst | 1 + arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl | 4 + arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl | 4 + include/linux/compat.h | 23 + include/linux/futex.h | 103 ++++ include/linux/syscalls.h | 8 + include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h | 11 +- include/uapi/linux/futex.h | 27 + init/Kconfig | 7 + kernel/Makefile | 1 + kernel/fork.c | 2 + kernel/futex.c | 111 +--- kernel/futex2.c | 566 ++++++++++++++++++ kernel/sys_ni.c | 9 + tools/arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h | 12 + tools/perf/bench/bench.h | 4 + tools/perf/bench/futex-hash.c | 24 +- tools/perf/bench/futex-requeue.c | 57 +- tools/perf/bench/futex-wake-parallel.c | 41 +- tools/perf/bench/futex-wake.c | 37 +- tools/perf/bench/futex.h | 47 ++ tools/perf/builtin-bench.c | 18 +- .../selftests/futex/functional/.gitignore | 3 + .../selftests/futex/functional/Makefile | 6 +- .../futex/functional/futex2_requeue.c | 164 +++++ .../selftests/futex/functional/futex2_wait.c | 195 ++++++ .../selftests/futex/functional/futex2_waitv.c | 154 +++++ .../futex/functional/futex_wait_timeout.c | 24 +- .../futex/functional/futex_wait_wouldblock.c | 33 +- .../testing/selftests/futex/functional/run.sh | 6 + .../selftests/futex/include/futex2test.h | 112 ++++ 32 files changed, 1865 insertions(+), 134 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Documentation/locking/futex2.rst create mode 100644 kernel/futex2.c create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/futex/functional/futex2_requeue.c create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/futex/functional/futex2_wait.c create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/futex/functional/futex2_waitv.c create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/futex/include/futex2test.h
-- 2.32.0