One point of contention in high network loads is the dst_release() performed
when a transmited skb is freed. This is because NIC tx completion calls
dev_kree_skb() long after original call to dev_queue_xmit(skb).
CPU cache is cold and the atomic op in dst_release() stalls. On SMP, this is
quite visible if one CPU is 100% handling softirqs for a network device,
since dst_clone() is done by other cpus, involving cache line ping pongs.
It seems right place to release dst is in dev_hard_start_xmit(), for most
devices but ones that are virtual, and some exceptions.
David Miller suggested to define a new device flag, set in alloc_netdev_mq()
(so that most devices set it at init time), and carefuly unset in devices
which dont want a NULL skb->dst in their ndo_start_xmit().
List of devices that must clear this flag is :
- loopback device, because it calls netif_rx() and quoting Patrick :
"ip_route_input() doesn't accept loopback addresses, so loopback packets
already need to have a dst_entry attached."
- appletalk/ipddp.c : needs skb->dst in its xmit function
- And all devices that call again dev_queue_xmit() from their xmit function
(as some classifiers need skb->dst) : bonding, vlan, macvlan, eql, ifb, hdlc_fr
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <dada1@cosmosbay.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>