<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-stable.git/arch/s390/include/asm/entry-percpu.h, branch master</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel stable tree</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>s390/percpu: Infrastructure for more efficient this_cpu operations</title>
<updated>2026-06-03T13:32:46+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Heiko Carstens</name>
<email>hca@linux.ibm.com</email>
</author>
<published>2026-05-26T05:56:56+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=a737737cdb9c94e40a9926cdc2320f874c05d709'/>
<id>a737737cdb9c94e40a9926cdc2320f874c05d709</id>
<content type='text'>
With the intended removal of PREEMPT_NONE this_cpu operations based on
atomic instructions, guarded with preempt_disable()/preempt_enable() pairs
become more expensive: the preempt_disable() / preempt_enable() pairs are
not optimized away anymore during compile time.

In particular the conditional call to preempt_schedule_notrace() after
preempt_enable() adds additional code and register pressure.

E.g. this simple C code sequence

DEFINE_PER_CPU(long, foo);
long bar(long a) { return this_cpu_add_return(foo, a); }

generates this code:

  11a976:       eb af f0 68 00 24       stmg    %r10,%r15,104(%r15)
  11a97c:       b9 04 00 ef             lgr     %r14,%r15
  11a980:       b9 04 00 b2             lgr     %r11,%r2
  11a984:       e3 f0 ff c8 ff 71       lay     %r15,-56(%r15)
  11a98a:       e3 e0 f0 98 00 24       stg     %r14,152(%r15)
  11a990:       eb 01 03 a8 00 6a       asi     936,1            &lt;- __preempt_count_add(1)
  11a996:       c0 10 00 d2 ac b5       larl    %r1,1b70300      &lt;- address of percpu var
  11a9a0:       e3 10 23 b8 00 08       ag      %r1,952          &lt;- add percpu offset
  11a9a6:       eb ab 10 00 00 e8       laag    %r10,%r11,0(%r1) &lt;- atomic op
  11a9ac:       eb ff 03 a8 00 6e       alsi    936,-1           &lt;- __preempt_count_dec_and_test()
  11a9b2:       a7 54 00 05             jnhe    11a9bc &lt;bar+0x4c&gt;
  11a9b6:       c0 e5 00 76 d1 bd       brasl   %r14,ff4d30 &lt;preempt_schedule_notrace&gt;
  11a9bc:       b9 e8 b0 2a             agrk    %r2,%r10,%r11
  11a9c0:       eb af f0 a0 00 04       lmg     %r10,%r15,160(%r15)
  11a9c6        07 fe                   br      %r14

Even though the above example is more or less the worst case, since the
branch to preempt_schedule_notrace() requires a stackframe, which
otherwise wouldn't be necessary, there is also the conditional jnhe branch
instruction.

Get rid of the conditional branch with the following code sequence:

  11a8e6:       c0 30 00 d0 c5 0d       larl    %r3,1b33300
  11a8ec:       b9 04 00 43             lgr     %r4,%r3
  11a8f0:       eb 00 43 c0 00 52       mviy    960,4
  11a8f6:       e3 40 03 b8 00 08       ag      %r4,952
  11a8fc:       eb 52 40 00 00 e8       laag    %r5,%r2,0(%r4)
  11a902:       eb 00 03 c0 00 52       mviy    960,0
  11a908:       b9 08 00 25             agr     %r2,%r5
  11a90c        07 fe                   br      %r14

The general idea is that this_cpu operations based on atomic instructions
are guarded with mviy instructions:

- The first mviy instruction writes the register number, which contains
  the percpu address variable to lowcore. This also indicates that a
  percpu code section is executed.

- The first instruction following the mviy instruction must be the ag
  instruction which adds the percpu offset to the percpu address register.

- Afterwards the atomic percpu operation follows.

- Then a second mviy instruction writes a zero to lowcore, which indicates
  the end of the percpu code section.

- In case of an interrupt/exception/nmi the register number which was
  written to lowcore is copied to the exception frame (pt_regs), and a zero
  is written to lowcore.

- On return to the previous context it is checked if a percpu code section
  was executed (saved register number not zero), and if the process was
  migrated to a different cpu. If the percpu offset was already added to
  the percpu address register (instruction address does _not_ point to the
  ag instruction) the content of the percpu address register is adjusted so
  it points to percpu variable of the new cpu.

Reviewed-by: Alexander Gordeev &lt;agordeev@linux.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens &lt;hca@linux.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Alexander Gordeev &lt;agordeev@linux.ibm.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
With the intended removal of PREEMPT_NONE this_cpu operations based on
atomic instructions, guarded with preempt_disable()/preempt_enable() pairs
become more expensive: the preempt_disable() / preempt_enable() pairs are
not optimized away anymore during compile time.

In particular the conditional call to preempt_schedule_notrace() after
preempt_enable() adds additional code and register pressure.

E.g. this simple C code sequence

DEFINE_PER_CPU(long, foo);
long bar(long a) { return this_cpu_add_return(foo, a); }

generates this code:

  11a976:       eb af f0 68 00 24       stmg    %r10,%r15,104(%r15)
  11a97c:       b9 04 00 ef             lgr     %r14,%r15
  11a980:       b9 04 00 b2             lgr     %r11,%r2
  11a984:       e3 f0 ff c8 ff 71       lay     %r15,-56(%r15)
  11a98a:       e3 e0 f0 98 00 24       stg     %r14,152(%r15)
  11a990:       eb 01 03 a8 00 6a       asi     936,1            &lt;- __preempt_count_add(1)
  11a996:       c0 10 00 d2 ac b5       larl    %r1,1b70300      &lt;- address of percpu var
  11a9a0:       e3 10 23 b8 00 08       ag      %r1,952          &lt;- add percpu offset
  11a9a6:       eb ab 10 00 00 e8       laag    %r10,%r11,0(%r1) &lt;- atomic op
  11a9ac:       eb ff 03 a8 00 6e       alsi    936,-1           &lt;- __preempt_count_dec_and_test()
  11a9b2:       a7 54 00 05             jnhe    11a9bc &lt;bar+0x4c&gt;
  11a9b6:       c0 e5 00 76 d1 bd       brasl   %r14,ff4d30 &lt;preempt_schedule_notrace&gt;
  11a9bc:       b9 e8 b0 2a             agrk    %r2,%r10,%r11
  11a9c0:       eb af f0 a0 00 04       lmg     %r10,%r15,160(%r15)
  11a9c6        07 fe                   br      %r14

Even though the above example is more or less the worst case, since the
branch to preempt_schedule_notrace() requires a stackframe, which
otherwise wouldn't be necessary, there is also the conditional jnhe branch
instruction.

Get rid of the conditional branch with the following code sequence:

  11a8e6:       c0 30 00 d0 c5 0d       larl    %r3,1b33300
  11a8ec:       b9 04 00 43             lgr     %r4,%r3
  11a8f0:       eb 00 43 c0 00 52       mviy    960,4
  11a8f6:       e3 40 03 b8 00 08       ag      %r4,952
  11a8fc:       eb 52 40 00 00 e8       laag    %r5,%r2,0(%r4)
  11a902:       eb 00 03 c0 00 52       mviy    960,0
  11a908:       b9 08 00 25             agr     %r2,%r5
  11a90c        07 fe                   br      %r14

The general idea is that this_cpu operations based on atomic instructions
are guarded with mviy instructions:

- The first mviy instruction writes the register number, which contains
  the percpu address variable to lowcore. This also indicates that a
  percpu code section is executed.

- The first instruction following the mviy instruction must be the ag
  instruction which adds the percpu offset to the percpu address register.

- Afterwards the atomic percpu operation follows.

- Then a second mviy instruction writes a zero to lowcore, which indicates
  the end of the percpu code section.

- In case of an interrupt/exception/nmi the register number which was
  written to lowcore is copied to the exception frame (pt_regs), and a zero
  is written to lowcore.

- On return to the previous context it is checked if a percpu code section
  was executed (saved register number not zero), and if the process was
  migrated to a different cpu. If the percpu offset was already added to
  the percpu address register (instruction address does _not_ point to the
  ag instruction) the content of the percpu address register is adjusted so
  it points to percpu variable of the new cpu.

Reviewed-by: Alexander Gordeev &lt;agordeev@linux.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens &lt;hca@linux.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Alexander Gordeev &lt;agordeev@linux.ibm.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
