diff mbox

[RFC,5/6] epoll: Add implementation for epoll_mod_wait

Message ID 1421747878-30744-6-git-send-email-famz@redhat.com (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show

Commit Message

Fam Zheng Jan. 20, 2015, 9:57 a.m. UTC
This syscall is a sequence of

1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.

The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
common pattern for certain applications. For example, depending on the input
buffer status, a data reading program may decide to temporarily not polling an
fd.

Because the enablement of batching in this interface, even that regular
epoll_ctl call sequence, which manipulates several fds, can be optimized to one
single epoll_ctl_wait (while specifying spec=NULL to skip the poll part).

The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
copy_from_user to copy the array.

Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
failure.

Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
scalar. This provides higher precision. The parameter field in struct
epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
clock than the default when it makes more sense.

Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
---
 fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
 2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)

Comments

Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) Jan. 20, 2015, 12:50 p.m. UTC | #1
Hello Fam Zheng,

On 01/20/2015 10:57 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> This syscall is a sequence of
> 
> 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
> 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
> 
> The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
> separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
> efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
> common pattern for certain applications. 

Which applications? Could we have some specific examples? This is a 
complex API, and it needs good justification.

> For example, depending on the input
> buffer status, a data reading program may decide to temporarily not polling an
> fd.
> 
> Because the enablement of batching in this interface, even that regular
> epoll_ctl call sequence, which manipulates several fds, can be optimized to one
> single epoll_ctl_wait (while specifying spec=NULL to skip the poll part).
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ should be epoll_mod_wait

I think you mean to say:

    The ability to batch multiple "epoll_ctl" operations into a single call
    means that even when no wait events are requested (i.e., spec == NULL),
    poll_mod_wait() provides a performance optimization over using multiple
    epoll_ctl() calls.

Right? If yes, please amend the commit message, and this text should
also make its way into the revised man page under a heading "NOTES".

> The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
> epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
> the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
> equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
> executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
> copy_from_user to copy the array.
> 
> Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
> all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
> possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
> know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
> init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
> More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
> failure.

The "cmds' are not executed in a specified order plus the need to
initialize the 'errors' fields to a positive value feels a bit ugly.
And indeed the whole "command list was only partially run" case
is not pretty. Am I correct to understand that if an error is found
during execution of one of the "epoll_ctl" commands in 'cmds' then
the system call will return -1 with errno set, indicating an error,
even though the epoll interest list may have changed because some
of the earlier 'cmds' executed successfully? This all seems a bit of
a headache for user space.

I have a couple of questions:

Q1. I can see that batching "epoll_ctl" commands might be useful,
since it results in fewer systems calls. But, does it really
need to be bound together with the "epoll_pwait" functionality?
(Perhaps this point was covered in previous discussions, but
neither the message accompanying this patch nor the 0/6 man page
provide a compelling rationale for the need to bind these two
operations together.)

Yes, I realize you might save a system call, but it makes for a
cumbersome API that has the above headache, and also forces the 
need for double pointer indirection in the 'spec' argument (i.e., 
spec is a pointer to an array of structures where each element
in turn includes an 'events' pointer that points to another array).

Why not a simpler API with two syscalls such as:

epoll_ctl_batch(int epfd, int flags,
                int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd *cmds);

epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
             struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, 
             const sigset_t *sigmask, size_t sigsetsize);

This gives us much of the benefit of reducing system calls, but 
with greater simplicity. And epoll_ctl_batch() could simply return
the number of 'cmds' that were successfully executed.)

Q2. In the man page in 0/6 you said that the 'cmds' were not 
guaranteed to be executed in order. Why not? If you did provide
such a guarantee, then, when using your current epoll_mod_wait(),
user space could do the following:

1. Initialize the cmd.errors fields to zero.
2. Call epoll_ctl_mod()
3. Iterate through cmd.errors looking for the first nonzero 
   field.

> Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
> scalar. This provides higher precision. 

Yes, that change seemed inevitable. It slightly puzzled me at the time when
Davide Libenzi added epoll_wait() that the timeout was milliseconds, even
though pselect() already had demonstrated the need for higher precision.
I should have called it out way back then :-{.

> The parameter field in struct
> epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
> clock than the default when it makes more sense.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
> ---
>  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
>  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
> index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
> --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
> +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
> @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
>  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
>  }
>  
> +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
> +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
> +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
> +{
> +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
> +	int i, ret = 0;
> +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
> +
> +	if (flags)
> +		return -EINVAL;
> +	if (ncmds) {
> +		if (!cmds)
> +			return -EINVAL;
> +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> +		if (!kcmds)
> +			return -ENOMEM;
> +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
> +			ret = -EFAULT;
> +			goto out;
> +		}
> +	}
> +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
> +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
> +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
> +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
> +		};
> +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
> +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;

To make the 'ret' change a little more obvious, maybe it's better to write

			ret = kcmds[i].error = -EINVAL;

> +			goto out;
> +		}
> +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);

Likewise:
		ret = kcmds[i].error = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);

> +		if (ret)
> +			goto out;
> +	}
> +	if (spec) {
> +		sigset_t ksigmask;
> +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
> +		ktime_t timeout;
> +
> +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))

Cosmetic point: s/if(/if (/

> +			return -EFAULT;
> +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
> +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
> +				return -EINVAL;
> +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
> +				return -EFAULT;
> +		}
> +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
> +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
> +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
> +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);

If I understand correctly, the implementation means that the
'size_t sigsetsize' field will probably need to be exposed to 
applications. In the existing epoll_pwait() call (as in  ppoll()
and pselect()) the 'size_t sigsetsize' argument is hidden by glibc.
However, unless we expect glibc to do some structure copying to/from
a structure that hides this field, then we're going end up exposing
'size_t sigsetsize' to applications. (This could be avoided, if we
split the API as I suggest above. glibc would do the same thing 
in epoll_pwait1() that it currently does in epoll_pwait().)

Thanks,

Michael
Fam Zheng Jan. 21, 2015, 4:59 a.m. UTC | #2
On Tue, 01/20 13:50, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> Hello Fam Zheng,
> 
> On 01/20/2015 10:57 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> > This syscall is a sequence of
> > 
> > 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
> > 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
> > 
> > The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
> > separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
> > efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
> > common pattern for certain applications. 
> 
> Which applications? Could we have some specific examples? This is a 
> complex API, and it needs good justification.

OK, I'll explain more in v2.

> 
> > For example, depending on the input
> > buffer status, a data reading program may decide to temporarily not polling an
> > fd.
> > 
> > Because the enablement of batching in this interface, even that regular
> > epoll_ctl call sequence, which manipulates several fds, can be optimized to one
> > single epoll_ctl_wait (while specifying spec=NULL to skip the poll part).
>          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ should be epoll_mod_wait
> 
> I think you mean to say:
> 
>     The ability to batch multiple "epoll_ctl" operations into a single call
>     means that even when no wait events are requested (i.e., spec == NULL),
>     poll_mod_wait() provides a performance optimization over using multiple
>     epoll_ctl() calls.
> 
> Right? If yes, please amend the commit message, and this text should
> also make its way into the revised man page under a heading "NOTES".

OK.

> 
> > The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
> > epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
> > the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
> > equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
> > executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
> > copy_from_user to copy the array.
> > 
> > Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
> > all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
> > possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
> > know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
> > init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
> > More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
> > failure.
> 
> The "cmds' are not executed in a specified order plus the need to
> initialize the 'errors' fields to a positive value feels a bit ugly.
> And indeed the whole "command list was only partially run" case
> is not pretty. Am I correct to understand that if an error is found
> during execution of one of the "epoll_ctl" commands in 'cmds' then
> the system call will return -1 with errno set, indicating an error,
> even though the epoll interest list may have changed because some
> of the earlier 'cmds' executed successfully? This all seems a bit of
> a headache for user space.

This is the trade-off for batching. The best we can do is probably make this
transactional: none or all of the commands succeeds. It will require a much
more complex implementation, though. But even with that, the error reporting on
which command failed is a complication.

> 
> I have a couple of questions:
> 
> Q1. I can see that batching "epoll_ctl" commands might be useful,
> since it results in fewer systems calls. But, does it really
> need to be bound together with the "epoll_pwait" functionality?
> (Perhaps this point was covered in previous discussions, but
> neither the message accompanying this patch nor the 0/6 man page
> provide a compelling rationale for the need to bind these two
> operations together.)
> 
> Yes, I realize you might save a system call, but it makes for a
> cumbersome API that has the above headache, and also forces the 
> need for double pointer indirection in the 'spec' argument (i.e., 
> spec is a pointer to an array of structures where each element
> in turn includes an 'events' pointer that points to another array).
> 
> Why not a simpler API with two syscalls such as:
> 
> epoll_ctl_batch(int epfd, int flags,
>                 int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd *cmds);
> 
> epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
>              struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, 
>              const sigset_t *sigmask, size_t sigsetsize);

The problem is that there is no room for flags field in epoll_pwait1, which is
asked for, in previous discussion thread [1].

I don't see epoll_mod_wait as a *significantly more* complicated interface
compared to epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 above. In epoll_mod_wait, if you
leave out ncmds and cmds, it is effectively a poll without batch; and if
leaving out spec, it is effectively a batch without poll.

The most important change here is the timeout. IMO I wouldn't mind leaving out
batching. Integrating it is requested by Andy:

[1]: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1861430/focus=91591

which also made sense to me; I do have a patch in QEMU to call epoll_ctl for a
number of times right before epoll_wait.

[Sorry for not putting anything into cover letter changelog, but it is also
interesting to see people's reaction on the patch itself without bias of
others' opinions. This indeed brings in more points. :]

> 
> This gives us much of the benefit of reducing system calls, but 
> with greater simplicity. And epoll_ctl_batch() could simply return
> the number of 'cmds' that were successfully executed.)
> 
> Q2. In the man page in 0/6 you said that the 'cmds' were not 
> guaranteed to be executed in order. Why not? If you did provide
> such a guarantee, then, when using your current epoll_mod_wait(),
> user space could do the following:

I guess we can make a guarentee on that.

> 
> 1. Initialize the cmd.errors fields to zero.
> 2. Call epoll_ctl_mod()
> 3. Iterate through cmd.errors looking for the first nonzero 
>    field.

It's close, but zero is not good enough, if copy_from_user of cmds failed in
the first place. Impossible value, or error value, will be safer.

> 
> > Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
> > scalar. This provides higher precision. 
> 
> Yes, that change seemed inevitable. It slightly puzzled me at the time when
> Davide Libenzi added epoll_wait() that the timeout was milliseconds, even
> though pselect() already had demonstrated the need for higher precision.
> I should have called it out way back then :-{.
> 
> > The parameter field in struct
> > epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
> > clock than the default when it makes more sense.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
> >  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
> > index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
> > --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
> > +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
> > @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
> >  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> >  }
> >  
> > +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
> > +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
> > +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
> > +{
> > +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
> > +	int i, ret = 0;
> > +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
> > +
> > +	if (flags)
> > +		return -EINVAL;
> > +	if (ncmds) {
> > +		if (!cmds)
> > +			return -EINVAL;
> > +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> > +		if (!kcmds)
> > +			return -ENOMEM;
> > +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
> > +			ret = -EFAULT;
> > +			goto out;
> > +		}
> > +	}
> > +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
> > +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
> > +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
> > +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
> > +		};
> > +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
> > +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
> 
> To make the 'ret' change a little more obvious, maybe it's better to write
> 
> 			ret = kcmds[i].error = -EINVAL;
> 
> > +			goto out;
> > +		}
> > +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> 
> Likewise:
> 		ret = kcmds[i].error = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> 
> > +		if (ret)
> > +			goto out;
> > +	}
> > +	if (spec) {
> > +		sigset_t ksigmask;
> > +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
> > +		ktime_t timeout;
> > +
> > +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
> 
> Cosmetic point: s/if(/if (/
> 
> > +			return -EFAULT;
> > +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
> > +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
> > +				return -EINVAL;
> > +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
> > +				return -EFAULT;
> > +		}
> > +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
> > +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
> > +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
> > +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> 
> If I understand correctly, the implementation means that the
> 'size_t sigsetsize' field will probably need to be exposed to 
> applications. In the existing epoll_pwait() call (as in  ppoll()
> and pselect()) the 'size_t sigsetsize' argument is hidden by glibc.
> However, unless we expect glibc to do some structure copying to/from
> a structure that hides this field, then we're going end up exposing
> 'size_t sigsetsize' to applications. (This could be avoided, if we
> split the API as I suggest above. glibc would do the same thing 
> in epoll_pwait1() that it currently does in epoll_pwait().)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Michael
> 
> -- 
> Michael Kerrisk
> Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
> Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
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Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) Jan. 21, 2015, 7:52 a.m. UTC | #3
Hello Fam Zheng,

On 01/21/2015 05:59 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> On Tue, 01/20 13:50, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>> Hello Fam Zheng,
>>
>> On 01/20/2015 10:57 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
>>> This syscall is a sequence of
>>>
>>> 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
>>> 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
>>>
>>> The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
>>> separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
>>> efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
>>> common pattern for certain applications. 
>>
>> Which applications? Could we have some specific examples? This is a 
>> complex API, and it needs good justification.
> 
> OK, I'll explain more in v2.

Okay.

[...]

>>> The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
>>> epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
>>> the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
>>> equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
>>> executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
>>> copy_from_user to copy the array.
>>>
>>> Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
>>> all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
>>> possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
>>> know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
>>> init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
>>> More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
>>> failure.
>>
>> The "cmds' are not executed in a specified order plus the need to
>> initialize the 'errors' fields to a positive value feels a bit ugly.
>> And indeed the whole "command list was only partially run" case
>> is not pretty. Am I correct to understand that if an error is found
>> during execution of one of the "epoll_ctl" commands in 'cmds' then
>> the system call will return -1 with errno set, indicating an error,
>> even though the epoll interest list may have changed because some
>> of the earlier 'cmds' executed successfully? This all seems a bit of
>> a headache for user space.
> 
> This is the trade-off for batching. The best we can do is probably make this
> transactional: none or all of the commands succeeds. It will require a much
> more complex implementation, though. 

Transactional would be more comfortable for user-space, and while I 
can see that it would be complex to implement, perhaps the greater
point might be that the implementation is CPU expensive.

> But even with that, the error reporting on
> which command failed is a complication.

My suggestions below could make the error reporting much simpler...

>> I have a couple of questions:
>>
>> Q1. I can see that batching "epoll_ctl" commands might be useful,
>> since it results in fewer systems calls. But, does it really
>> need to be bound together with the "epoll_pwait" functionality?
>> (Perhaps this point was covered in previous discussions, but
>> neither the message accompanying this patch nor the 0/6 man page
>> provide a compelling rationale for the need to bind these two
>> operations together.)
>>
>> Yes, I realize you might save a system call, but it makes for a
>> cumbersome API that has the above headache, and also forces the 
>> need for double pointer indirection in the 'spec' argument (i.e., 
>> spec is a pointer to an array of structures where each element
>> in turn includes an 'events' pointer that points to another array).
>>
>> Why not a simpler API with two syscalls such as:
>>
>> epoll_ctl_batch(int epfd, int flags,
>>                 int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd *cmds);
>>
>> epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
>>              struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, 
>>              const sigset_t *sigmask, size_t sigsetsize);
> 
> The problem is that there is no room for flags field in epoll_pwait1, which is
> asked for, in previous discussion thread [1].

Ahh yes, I certainly should not have forgotten that. But that's easily solved.
Do as for pselect6():

strcut sigargs {
    const sigset_t *ss;
    size_t          ss_len; /* Size (in bytes) of object pointed
                               to by 'ss' */
}

epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
             struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, int flags,
             int timeout,
             const struct sigargs *sargs);

> I don't see epoll_mod_wait as a *significantly more* complicated interface
> compared to epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 above. 

My biggest problem with epoll_ctl_wait() is the complexity of error 
handling. epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 would simplify that, as I 
note below.

Aside from that, I do think that epoll_ctl_wait() passes a certain
threshold of complexity that warrants good justification, which
I haven't really seen yet.

> In epoll_mod_wait, if you
> leave out ncmds and cmds, it is effectively a poll without batch; and if
> leaving out spec, it is effectively a batch without poll.
> 
> The most important change here is the timeout. IMO I wouldn't mind leaving out
> batching. Integrating it is requested by Andy:
> 
> [1]: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1861430/focus=91591
> 
> which also made sense to me; I do have a patch in QEMU to call epoll_ctl for a
> number of times right before epoll_wait.
> 
> [Sorry for not putting anything into cover letter changelog, but it is also
> interesting to see people's reaction on the patch itself without bias of
> others' opinions. This indeed brings in more points. :]

But it also has the downside that the same discussions
may be repeated.

>> This gives us much of the benefit of reducing system calls, but 
>> with greater simplicity. And epoll_ctl_batch() could simply return
>> the number of 'cmds' that were successfully executed.)
>>
>> Q2. In the man page in 0/6 you said that the 'cmds' were not 
>> guaranteed to be executed in order. Why not? If you did provide
>> such a guarantee, then, when using your current epoll_mod_wait(),
>> user space could do the following:
> 
> I guess we can make a guarentee on that.

I'm puzzled by that response. Surely you *must* guarantee it.
If there's no defined order, then if the batch includes multiple 
commands that operate on the same FD, the result is undefined 
unless you provide that guarantee. (Unless, of course, you want to
explicitly specify that using the same FD multiple times in the
batch gives undefined behavior.)

>> 1. Initialize the cmd.errors fields to zero.
>> 2. Call epoll_ctl_mod()
>> 3. Iterate through cmd.errors looking for the first nonzero 
>>    field.
> 
> It's close, but zero is not good enough, if copy_from_user of cmds failed in
> the first place. Impossible value, or error value, will be safer.

See my comment in the earlier mail. If you split this into two 
APIs, and epoll_ctl_batch() is guaranteed to execute 'cmds' in order, 
then the return value of epoll_ctl_batch() could be used to tell
user space how many commands succeeded. Much simpler!

>>> Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
>>> scalar. This provides higher precision. 
>>
>> Yes, that change seemed inevitable. It slightly puzzled me at the time when
>> Davide Libenzi added epoll_wait() that the timeout was milliseconds, even
>> though pselect() already had demonstrated the need for higher precision.
>> I should have called it out way back then :-{.
>>
>>> The parameter field in struct
>>> epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
>>> clock than the default when it makes more sense.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
>>> ---
>>>  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>>  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
>>>  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
>>> index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
>>> --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
>>> +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
>>> @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
>>>  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
>>>  }
>>>  
>>> +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
>>> +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
>>> +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
>>> +{
>>> +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
>>> +	int i, ret = 0;
>>> +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
>>> +
>>> +	if (flags)
>>> +		return -EINVAL;
>>> +	if (ncmds) {
>>> +		if (!cmds)
>>> +			return -EINVAL;
>>> +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
>>> +		if (!kcmds)
>>> +			return -ENOMEM;
>>> +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
>>> +			ret = -EFAULT;
>>> +			goto out;
>>> +		}
>>> +	}
>>> +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
>>> +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
>>> +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
>>> +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
>>> +		};
>>> +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
>>> +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
>>
>> To make the 'ret' change a little more obvious, maybe it's better to write
>>
>> 			ret = kcmds[i].error = -EINVAL;
>>
>>> +			goto out;
>>> +		}
>>> +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
>>
>> Likewise:
>> 		ret = kcmds[i].error = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
>>
>>> +		if (ret)
>>> +			goto out;
>>> +	}
>>> +	if (spec) {
>>> +		sigset_t ksigmask;
>>> +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
>>> +		ktime_t timeout;
>>> +
>>> +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
>>
>> Cosmetic point: s/if(/if (/
>>
>>> +			return -EFAULT;
>>> +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
>>> +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
>>> +				return -EINVAL;
>>> +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
>>> +				return -EFAULT;
>>> +		}
>>> +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
>>> +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
>>> +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
>>> +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
>>
>> If I understand correctly, the implementation means that the
>> 'size_t sigsetsize' field will probably need to be exposed to 
>> applications. In the existing epoll_pwait() call (as in  ppoll()
>> and pselect()) the 'size_t sigsetsize' argument is hidden by glibc.
>> However, unless we expect glibc to do some structure copying to/from
>> a structure that hides this field, then we're going end up exposing
>> 'size_t sigsetsize' to applications. (This could be avoided, if we
>> split the API as I suggest above. glibc would do the same thing 
>> in epoll_pwait1() that it currently does in epoll_pwait().)

You missed responding to this point; I think it matters.
(There were also some other points to consider in my reply 
to your 0/6 mail.)

Cheers,

Michael
Omar Sandoval Jan. 21, 2015, 7:56 a.m. UTC | #4
On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 05:57:57PM +0800, Fam Zheng wrote:
> This syscall is a sequence of
> 
> 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
> 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
> 
> The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
> separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
> efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
> common pattern for certain applications. For example, depending on the input
> buffer status, a data reading program may decide to temporarily not polling an
> fd.
> 
> Because the enablement of batching in this interface, even that regular
> epoll_ctl call sequence, which manipulates several fds, can be optimized to one
> single epoll_ctl_wait (while specifying spec=NULL to skip the poll part).
> 
> The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
> epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
> the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
> equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
> executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
> copy_from_user to copy the array.
> 
> Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
> all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
> possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
> know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
> init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
> More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
> failure.
> 
> Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
> scalar. This provides higher precision. The parameter field in struct
> epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
> clock than the default when it makes more sense.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
> ---
>  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
>  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
> index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
> --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
> +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
> @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
>  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
>  }
>  
> +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
> +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
> +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
> +{
> +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
> +	int i, ret = 0;
> +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
> +
> +	if (flags)
> +		return -EINVAL;
> +	if (ncmds) {
> +		if (!cmds)
> +			return -EINVAL;
> +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> +		if (!kcmds)
> +			return -ENOMEM;
> +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
> +			ret = -EFAULT;
> +			goto out;
> +		}
> +	}
> +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
> +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
> +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
> +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
> +		};
> +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
> +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
> +			goto out;
> +		}
> +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> +		if (ret)
> +			goto out;
> +	}
> +	if (spec) {
> +		sigset_t ksigmask;
> +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
> +		ktime_t timeout;
> +
> +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
> +			return -EFAULT;
This should probably be goto out, or you'll leak kcmds.

> +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
> +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
> +				return -EINVAL;
Same here...

> +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
> +				return -EFAULT;
and here.

> +		}
> +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
> +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
> +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
> +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> +	}
> +
> +out:
> +	if (ncmds && copy_to_user(cmds, kcmds, cmd_size))
> +		return -EFAULT;
This will also leak kcmds, it should be ret = -EFAULT. This case, however, seems
to lead to a weird corner case: if cmds is read-only, we'll end up executing
every command but fail to copy out the return values, so when userspace gets the
EFAULT, it won't know whether anything was executed. But, getting an EFAULT here
means you're probably doing something wrong anyways, so maybe not the biggest
concern.

> +	kfree(kcmds);
> +	return ret;
> +}
> +
>  #ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT
>  COMPAT_SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd,
>  		       struct epoll_event __user *, events,
> diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> index 85893d7..7156c80 100644
> --- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
> +++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
>  #define _LINUX_SYSCALLS_H
>  
>  struct epoll_event;
> +struct epoll_mod_cmd;
> +struct epoll_wait_spec;
>  struct iattr;
>  struct inode;
>  struct iocb;
> @@ -630,6 +632,9 @@ asmlinkage long sys_epoll_pwait(int epfd, struct epoll_event __user *events,
>  				int maxevents, int timeout,
>  				const sigset_t __user *sigmask,
>  				size_t sigsetsize);
> +asmlinkage long sys_epoll_mod_wait(int epfd, int flags,
> +				   int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user * cmds,
> +				   struct epoll_wait_spec __user * spec);
>  asmlinkage long sys_gethostname(char __user *name, int len);
>  asmlinkage long sys_sethostname(char __user *name, int len);
>  asmlinkage long sys_setdomainname(char __user *name, int len);
> -- 
> 1.9.3
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Fam Zheng Jan. 21, 2015, 8:58 a.m. UTC | #5
On Wed, 01/21 08:52, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> Hello Fam Zheng,
> 
> On 01/21/2015 05:59 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> > On Tue, 01/20 13:50, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> >> Hello Fam Zheng,
> >>
> >> On 01/20/2015 10:57 AM, Fam Zheng wrote:
> >>> This syscall is a sequence of
> >>>
> >>> 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
> >>> 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
> >>>
> >>> The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
> >>> separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
> >>> efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
> >>> common pattern for certain applications. 
> >>
> >> Which applications? Could we have some specific examples? This is a 
> >> complex API, and it needs good justification.
> > 
> > OK, I'll explain more in v2.
> 
> Okay.
> 
> [...]
> 
> >>> The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
> >>> epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
> >>> the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
> >>> equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
> >>> executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
> >>> copy_from_user to copy the array.
> >>>
> >>> Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
> >>> all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
> >>> possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
> >>> know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
> >>> init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
> >>> More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
> >>> failure.
> >>
> >> The "cmds' are not executed in a specified order plus the need to
> >> initialize the 'errors' fields to a positive value feels a bit ugly.
> >> And indeed the whole "command list was only partially run" case
> >> is not pretty. Am I correct to understand that if an error is found
> >> during execution of one of the "epoll_ctl" commands in 'cmds' then
> >> the system call will return -1 with errno set, indicating an error,
> >> even though the epoll interest list may have changed because some
> >> of the earlier 'cmds' executed successfully? This all seems a bit of
> >> a headache for user space.
> > 
> > This is the trade-off for batching. The best we can do is probably make this
> > transactional: none or all of the commands succeeds. It will require a much
> > more complex implementation, though. 
> 
> Transactional would be more comfortable for user-space, and while I 
> can see that it would be complex to implement, perhaps the greater
> point might be that the implementation is CPU expensive.

Good point.

> 
> > But even with that, the error reporting on
> > which command failed is a complication.
> 
> My suggestions below could make the error reporting much simpler...
> 
> >> I have a couple of questions:
> >>
> >> Q1. I can see that batching "epoll_ctl" commands might be useful,
> >> since it results in fewer systems calls. But, does it really
> >> need to be bound together with the "epoll_pwait" functionality?
> >> (Perhaps this point was covered in previous discussions, but
> >> neither the message accompanying this patch nor the 0/6 man page
> >> provide a compelling rationale for the need to bind these two
> >> operations together.)
> >>
> >> Yes, I realize you might save a system call, but it makes for a
> >> cumbersome API that has the above headache, and also forces the 
> >> need for double pointer indirection in the 'spec' argument (i.e., 
> >> spec is a pointer to an array of structures where each element
> >> in turn includes an 'events' pointer that points to another array).
> >>
> >> Why not a simpler API with two syscalls such as:
> >>
> >> epoll_ctl_batch(int epfd, int flags,
> >>                 int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd *cmds);
> >>
> >> epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
> >>              struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, 
> >>              const sigset_t *sigmask, size_t sigsetsize);
> > 
> > The problem is that there is no room for flags field in epoll_pwait1, which is
> > asked for, in previous discussion thread [1].
> 
> Ahh yes, I certainly should not have forgotten that. But that's easily solved.
> Do as for pselect6():
> 
> strcut sigargs {
>     const sigset_t *ss;
>     size_t          ss_len; /* Size (in bytes) of object pointed
>                                to by 'ss' */
> }
> 
> epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
>              struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, int flags,
>              int timeout,
>              const struct sigargs *sargs);
> 
> > I don't see epoll_mod_wait as a *significantly more* complicated interface
> > compared to epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 above. 
> 
> My biggest problem with epoll_ctl_wait() is the complexity of error 
> handling. epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 would simplify that, as I 
> note below.
> 
> Aside from that, I do think that epoll_ctl_wait() passes a certain
> threshold of complexity that warrants good justification, which
> I haven't really seen yet.

OK, see below.

> 
> > In epoll_mod_wait, if you
> > leave out ncmds and cmds, it is effectively a poll without batch; and if
> > leaving out spec, it is effectively a batch without poll.
> > 
> > The most important change here is the timeout. IMO I wouldn't mind leaving out
> > batching. Integrating it is requested by Andy:
> > 
> > [1]: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1861430/focus=91591
> > 
> > which also made sense to me; I do have a patch in QEMU to call epoll_ctl for a
> > number of times right before epoll_wait.
> > 
> > [Sorry for not putting anything into cover letter changelog, but it is also
> > interesting to see people's reaction on the patch itself without bias of
> > others' opinions. This indeed brings in more points. :]
> 
> But it also has the downside that the same discussions
> may be repeated.

Yes, that's why I definitely do it for any version that is > v1.

> 
> >> This gives us much of the benefit of reducing system calls, but 
> >> with greater simplicity. And epoll_ctl_batch() could simply return
> >> the number of 'cmds' that were successfully executed.)
> >>
> >> Q2. In the man page in 0/6 you said that the 'cmds' were not 
> >> guaranteed to be executed in order. Why not? If you did provide
> >> such a guarantee, then, when using your current epoll_mod_wait(),
> >> user space could do the following:
> > 
> > I guess we can make a guarentee on that.
> 
> I'm puzzled by that response. Surely you *must* guarantee it.
> If there's no defined order, then if the batch includes multiple 
> commands that operate on the same FD, the result is undefined 
> unless you provide that guarantee. (Unless, of course, you want to
> explicitly specify that using the same FD multiple times in the
> batch gives undefined behavior.)

OK. Then let's guarentee it.

> 
> >> 1. Initialize the cmd.errors fields to zero.
> >> 2. Call epoll_ctl_mod()
> >> 3. Iterate through cmd.errors looking for the first nonzero 
> >>    field.
> > 
> > It's close, but zero is not good enough, if copy_from_user of cmds failed in
> > the first place. Impossible value, or error value, will be safer.
> 
> See my comment in the earlier mail. If you split this into two 
> APIs, and epoll_ctl_batch() is guaranteed to execute 'cmds' in order, 
> then the return value of epoll_ctl_batch() could be used to tell
> user space how many commands succeeded. Much simpler!

Yes it is much simpler. However the reason to add batching in the first place is
to make epoll faster, by reducing syscalls. Splitting makes the result
sub-optimal: we still need at least 2 calls instead of 1.  Each one of the three
proposed new call *is* a step forward, but I don't think we will have everything
solved even by implementing them all. Compromise needed between performance or
complexity.

My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.

Andy, will you be OK with the above epoll_pwait1? Or do you have more
justifications for epoll_mod_and_wait?

> 
> >>> Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
> >>> scalar. This provides higher precision. 
> >>
> >> Yes, that change seemed inevitable. It slightly puzzled me at the time when
> >> Davide Libenzi added epoll_wait() that the timeout was milliseconds, even
> >> though pselect() already had demonstrated the need for higher precision.
> >> I should have called it out way back then :-{.
> >>
> >>> The parameter field in struct
> >>> epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
> >>> clock than the default when it makes more sense.
> >>>
> >>> Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
> >>> ---
> >>>  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >>>  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
> >>>  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
> >>>
> >>> diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
> >>> index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
> >>> --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
> >>> +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
> >>> @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
> >>>  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> >>>  }
> >>>  
> >>> +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
> >>> +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
> >>> +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
> >>> +{
> >>> +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
> >>> +	int i, ret = 0;
> >>> +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
> >>> +
> >>> +	if (flags)
> >>> +		return -EINVAL;
> >>> +	if (ncmds) {
> >>> +		if (!cmds)
> >>> +			return -EINVAL;
> >>> +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> >>> +		if (!kcmds)
> >>> +			return -ENOMEM;
> >>> +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
> >>> +			ret = -EFAULT;
> >>> +			goto out;
> >>> +		}
> >>> +	}
> >>> +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
> >>> +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
> >>> +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
> >>> +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
> >>> +		};
> >>> +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
> >>> +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
> >>
> >> To make the 'ret' change a little more obvious, maybe it's better to write
> >>
> >> 			ret = kcmds[i].error = -EINVAL;
> >>
> >>> +			goto out;
> >>> +		}
> >>> +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> >>
> >> Likewise:
> >> 		ret = kcmds[i].error = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> >>
> >>> +		if (ret)
> >>> +			goto out;
> >>> +	}
> >>> +	if (spec) {
> >>> +		sigset_t ksigmask;
> >>> +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
> >>> +		ktime_t timeout;
> >>> +
> >>> +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
> >>
> >> Cosmetic point: s/if(/if (/
> >>
> >>> +			return -EFAULT;
> >>> +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
> >>> +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
> >>> +				return -EINVAL;
> >>> +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
> >>> +				return -EFAULT;
> >>> +		}
> >>> +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
> >>> +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
> >>> +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
> >>> +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> >>
> >> If I understand correctly, the implementation means that the
> >> 'size_t sigsetsize' field will probably need to be exposed to 
> >> applications. In the existing epoll_pwait() call (as in  ppoll()
> >> and pselect()) the 'size_t sigsetsize' argument is hidden by glibc.
> >> However, unless we expect glibc to do some structure copying to/from
> >> a structure that hides this field, then we're going end up exposing
> >> 'size_t sigsetsize' to applications. (This could be avoided, if we
> >> split the API as I suggest above. glibc would do the same thing 
> >> in epoll_pwait1() that it currently does in epoll_pwait().)
> 
> You missed responding to this point; I think it matters.
> (There were also some other points to consider in my reply 
> to your 0/6 mail.)
> 

My bad, something I typed when replying went into /dev/null for unknown reasons,
what I had was:

This should be easy to solve: glibc can be responsible for building spec, and
applications will do something like:

	epoll_mod_wait(epfd, ncmds, cmds, maxevents, events, clockid,
		       timeout, sigmask);

Thanks,
Fam
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Fam Zheng Jan. 21, 2015, 8:59 a.m. UTC | #6
On Tue, 01/20 23:56, Omar Sandoval wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 05:57:57PM +0800, Fam Zheng wrote:
> > This syscall is a sequence of
> > 
> > 1) a number of epoll_ctl calls
> > 2) a epoll_pwait, with timeout enhancement.
> > 
> > The epoll_ctl operations are embeded so that application doesn't have to use
> > separate syscalls to insert/delete/update the fds before poll. It is more
> > efficient if the set of fds varies from one poll to another, which is the
> > common pattern for certain applications. For example, depending on the input
> > buffer status, a data reading program may decide to temporarily not polling an
> > fd.
> > 
> > Because the enablement of batching in this interface, even that regular
> > epoll_ctl call sequence, which manipulates several fds, can be optimized to one
> > single epoll_ctl_wait (while specifying spec=NULL to skip the poll part).
> > 
> > The only complexity is returning the result of each operation.  For each
> > epoll_mod_cmd in cmds, the field "error" is an output field that will be stored
> > the return code *iff* the command is executed (0 for success and -errno of the
> > equivalent epoll_ctl call), and will be left unchanged if the command is not
> > executed because some earlier error, for example due to failure of
> > copy_from_user to copy the array.
> > 
> > Applications can utilize this fact to do error handling: they could initialize
> > all the epoll_mod_wait.error to a positive value, which is by definition not a
> > possible output value from epoll_mod_wait. Then when the syscall returned, they
> > know whether or not the command is executed by comparing each error with the
> > init value, if they're different, they have the result of the command.
> > More roughly, they can put any non-zero and not distinguish "not run" from
> > failure.
> > 
> > Also, timeout parameter is enhanced: timespec is used, compared to the old ms
> > scalar. This provides higher precision. The parameter field in struct
> > epoll_wait_spec, "clockid", also makes it possible for users to use a different
> > clock than the default when it makes more sense.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Fam Zheng <famz@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  fs/eventpoll.c           | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  include/linux/syscalls.h |  5 ++++
> >  2 files changed, 65 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
> > index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
> > --- a/fs/eventpoll.c
> > +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
> > @@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
> >  			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> >  }
> >  
> > +SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
> > +		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
> > +		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
> > +{
> > +	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
> > +	int i, ret = 0;
> > +	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
> > +
> > +	if (flags)
> > +		return -EINVAL;
> > +	if (ncmds) {
> > +		if (!cmds)
> > +			return -EINVAL;
> > +		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> > +		if (!kcmds)
> > +			return -ENOMEM;
> > +		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
> > +			ret = -EFAULT;
> > +			goto out;
> > +		}
> > +	}
> > +	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
> > +		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
> > +			.events = kcmds[i].events,
> > +			.data = kcmds[i].data,
> > +		};
> > +		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
> > +			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
> > +			goto out;
> > +		}
> > +		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
> > +		if (ret)
> > +			goto out;
> > +	}
> > +	if (spec) {
> > +		sigset_t ksigmask;
> > +		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
> > +		ktime_t timeout;
> > +
> > +		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
> > +			return -EFAULT;
> This should probably be goto out, or you'll leak kcmds.
> 
> > +		if (kspec.sigmask) {
> > +			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
> > +				return -EINVAL;
> Same here...
> 
> > +			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
> > +				return -EFAULT;
> and here.
> 
> > +		}
> > +		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
> > +		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
> > +				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
> > +				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
> > +	}
> > +
> > +out:
> > +	if (ncmds && copy_to_user(cmds, kcmds, cmd_size))
> > +		return -EFAULT;
> This will also leak kcmds, it should be ret = -EFAULT. This case, however, seems
> to lead to a weird corner case: if cmds is read-only, we'll end up executing
> every command but fail to copy out the return values, so when userspace gets the
> EFAULT, it won't know whether anything was executed. But, getting an EFAULT here
> means you're probably doing something wrong anyways, so maybe not the biggest
> concern.

Yes, thanks! Will fix this.

Fam

> 
> > +	kfree(kcmds);
> > +	return ret;
> > +}
> > +
> >  #ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT
> >  COMPAT_SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd,
> >  		       struct epoll_event __user *, events,
> > diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> > index 85893d7..7156c80 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> > @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
> >  #define _LINUX_SYSCALLS_H
> >  
> >  struct epoll_event;
> > +struct epoll_mod_cmd;
> > +struct epoll_wait_spec;
> >  struct iattr;
> >  struct inode;
> >  struct iocb;
> > @@ -630,6 +632,9 @@ asmlinkage long sys_epoll_pwait(int epfd, struct epoll_event __user *events,
> >  				int maxevents, int timeout,
> >  				const sigset_t __user *sigmask,
> >  				size_t sigsetsize);
> > +asmlinkage long sys_epoll_mod_wait(int epfd, int flags,
> > +				   int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user * cmds,
> > +				   struct epoll_wait_spec __user * spec);
> >  asmlinkage long sys_gethostname(char __user *name, int len);
> >  asmlinkage long sys_sethostname(char __user *name, int len);
> >  asmlinkage long sys_setdomainname(char __user *name, int len);
> > -- 
> > 1.9.3
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 
> -- 
> Omar
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Paolo Bonzini Jan. 21, 2015, 10:34 a.m. UTC | #7
On 21/01/2015 08:52, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>> > The problem is that there is no room for flags field in epoll_pwait1, which is
>> > asked for, in previous discussion thread [1].
> Ahh yes, I certainly should not have forgotten that. But that's easily solved.
> Do as for pselect6():
> 
> strcut sigargs {
>     const sigset_t *ss;
>     size_t          ss_len; /* Size (in bytes) of object pointed
>                                to by 'ss' */
> }
> 
> epoll_pwait1(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents, 
>              struct timespec *timeout, int clock_id, int flags,
>              int timeout,
>              const struct sigargs *sargs);
> 

Alternatively, place the clock_id in the lower 16 bits of flags.
MAX_CLOCKS is 16 right now, so there's room.

Paolo
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Paolo Bonzini Jan. 21, 2015, 10:37 a.m. UTC | #8
On 21/01/2015 09:58, Fam Zheng wrote:
>> > See my comment in the earlier mail. If you split this into two 
>> > APIs, and epoll_ctl_batch() is guaranteed to execute 'cmds' in order, 
>> > then the return value of epoll_ctl_batch() could be used to tell
>> > user space how many commands succeeded. Much simpler!
> Yes it is much simpler. However the reason to add batching in the first place is
> to make epoll faster, by reducing syscalls. Splitting makes the result
> sub-optimal: we still need at least 2 calls instead of 1.  Each one of the three
> proposed new call *is* a step forward, but I don't think we will have everything
> solved even by implementing them all. Compromise needed between performance or
> complexity.
> 
> My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
> performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
> epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.

I agree with Michael actually.  The big change is going from O(n)
epoll_ctl calls to O(1), and epoll_ctl_batch achieves that just fine.
Changing 2 syscalls to 1 is the icing on the cake, but we're talking of
a fraction of a microsecond.

Paolo
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Fam Zheng Jan. 21, 2015, 11:14 a.m. UTC | #9
On Wed, 01/21 11:37, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> 
> 
> On 21/01/2015 09:58, Fam Zheng wrote:
> >> > See my comment in the earlier mail. If you split this into two 
> >> > APIs, and epoll_ctl_batch() is guaranteed to execute 'cmds' in order, 
> >> > then the return value of epoll_ctl_batch() could be used to tell
> >> > user space how many commands succeeded. Much simpler!
> > Yes it is much simpler. However the reason to add batching in the first place is
> > to make epoll faster, by reducing syscalls. Splitting makes the result
> > sub-optimal: we still need at least 2 calls instead of 1.  Each one of the three
> > proposed new call *is* a step forward, but I don't think we will have everything
> > solved even by implementing them all. Compromise needed between performance or
> > complexity.
> > 
> > My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
> > performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
> > epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.
> 
> I agree with Michael actually.  The big change is going from O(n)
> epoll_ctl calls to O(1), and epoll_ctl_batch achieves that just fine.
> Changing 2 syscalls to 1 is the icing on the cake, but we're talking of
> a fraction of a microsecond.
> 

Maybe I'm missing something, but in common cases, the set of fds for epoll_wait
doesn't change that radically from one iteration to another, does it?

Fam
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Paolo Bonzini Jan. 21, 2015, 11:50 a.m. UTC | #10
On 21/01/2015 12:14, Fam Zheng wrote:
> > My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
> > performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
> > epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.
> 
> > I agree with Michael actually.  The big change is going from O(n)
> > epoll_ctl calls to O(1), and epoll_ctl_batch achieves that just fine.
> > Changing 2 syscalls to 1 is the icing on the cake, but we're talking of
> > a fraction of a microsecond.
> 
> Maybe I'm missing something, but in common cases, the set of fds for epoll_wait
> doesn't change that radically from one iteration to another, does it?

That depends on the application.

Paolo
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Andy Lutomirski Jan. 22, 2015, 9:12 p.m. UTC | #11
On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 3:50 AM, Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 21/01/2015 12:14, Fam Zheng wrote:
>> > My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
>> > performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
>> > epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.
>>
>> > I agree with Michael actually.  The big change is going from O(n)
>> > epoll_ctl calls to O(1), and epoll_ctl_batch achieves that just fine.
>> > Changing 2 syscalls to 1 is the icing on the cake, but we're talking of
>> > a fraction of a microsecond.
>>
>> Maybe I'm missing something, but in common cases, the set of fds for epoll_wait
>> doesn't change that radically from one iteration to another, does it?
>
> That depends on the application.

In my application, the set of fds almost never changes, but the set of
events I want changes all the time.  The main thing that changes is
whether I care about EPOLLOUT.  If I'm ready to send something, then I
want EPOLLOUT.  If I'm not ready, then I don't want EPOLLOUT.

--Andy
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Fam Zheng Jan. 23, 2015, 6:20 a.m. UTC | #12
On Thu, 01/22 13:12, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 3:50 AM, Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 21/01/2015 12:14, Fam Zheng wrote:
> >> > My take for simplicity will be leaving epoll_ctl as-is, and my take for
> >> > performance will be epoll_pwait1. And I don't really like putting my time on
> >> > epoll_ctl_batch, thinking it as a ambivalent compromise in between.
> >>
> >> > I agree with Michael actually.  The big change is going from O(n)
> >> > epoll_ctl calls to O(1), and epoll_ctl_batch achieves that just fine.
> >> > Changing 2 syscalls to 1 is the icing on the cake, but we're talking of
> >> > a fraction of a microsecond.
> >>
> >> Maybe I'm missing something, but in common cases, the set of fds for epoll_wait
> >> doesn't change that radically from one iteration to another, does it?
> >
> > That depends on the application.
> 
> In my application, the set of fds almost never changes, but the set of
> events I want changes all the time.  The main thing that changes is
> whether I care about EPOLLOUT.  If I'm ready to send something, then I
> want EPOLLOUT.  If I'm not ready, then I don't want EPOLLOUT.
> 

OK, I'll split it to epoll_ctl_batch and epoll_pwait1 as Micheal suggested in
v2.

Fam
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Paolo Bonzini Jan. 23, 2015, 9:56 a.m. UTC | #13
On 22/01/2015 22:12, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> In my application, the set of fds almost never changes, but the set of
> events I want changes all the time.  The main thing that changes is
> whether I care about EPOLLOUT.  If I'm ready to send something, then I
> want EPOLLOUT.  If I'm not ready, then I don't want EPOLLOUT.

Yes, this is almost always the case unless you use EPOLLET.

Paolo
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diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c
index e7a116d..2cc22c9 100644
--- a/fs/eventpoll.c
+++ b/fs/eventpoll.c
@@ -2067,6 +2067,66 @@  SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd, struct epoll_event __user *, events,
 			      sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
 }
 
+SYSCALL_DEFINE5(epoll_mod_wait, int, epfd, int, flags,
+		int, ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user *, cmds,
+		struct epoll_wait_spec __user *, spec)
+{
+	struct epoll_mod_cmd *kcmds = NULL;
+	int i, ret = 0;
+	int cmd_size = sizeof(struct epoll_mod_cmd) * ncmds;
+
+	if (flags)
+		return -EINVAL;
+	if (ncmds) {
+		if (!cmds)
+			return -EINVAL;
+		kcmds = kmalloc(cmd_size, GFP_KERNEL);
+		if (!kcmds)
+			return -ENOMEM;
+		if (copy_from_user(kcmds, cmds, cmd_size)) {
+			ret = -EFAULT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+	}
+	for (i = 0; i < ncmds; i++) {
+		struct epoll_event ev = (struct epoll_event) {
+			.events = kcmds[i].events,
+			.data = kcmds[i].data,
+		};
+		if (kcmds[i].flags) {
+			kcmds[i].error = ret = -EINVAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		kcmds[i].error = ret = ep_ctl_do(epfd, kcmds[i].op, kcmds[i].fd, ev);
+		if (ret)
+			goto out;
+	}
+	if (spec) {
+		sigset_t ksigmask;
+		struct epoll_wait_spec kspec;
+		ktime_t timeout;
+
+		if(copy_from_user(&kspec, spec, sizeof(struct epoll_wait_spec)))
+			return -EFAULT;
+		if (kspec.sigmask) {
+			if (kspec.sigsetsize != sizeof(sigset_t))
+				return -EINVAL;
+			if (copy_from_user(&ksigmask, kspec.sigmask, sizeof(ksigmask)))
+				return -EFAULT;
+		}
+		timeout = timespec_to_ktime(kspec.timeout);
+		ret = epoll_pwait_do(epfd, kspec.events, kspec.maxevents,
+				     kspec.clockid, timeout,
+				     kspec.sigmask ? &ksigmask : NULL);
+	}
+
+out:
+	if (ncmds && copy_to_user(cmds, kcmds, cmd_size))
+		return -EFAULT;
+	kfree(kcmds);
+	return ret;
+}
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT
 COMPAT_SYSCALL_DEFINE6(epoll_pwait, int, epfd,
 		       struct epoll_event __user *, events,
diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
index 85893d7..7156c80 100644
--- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
+++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ 
 #define _LINUX_SYSCALLS_H
 
 struct epoll_event;
+struct epoll_mod_cmd;
+struct epoll_wait_spec;
 struct iattr;
 struct inode;
 struct iocb;
@@ -630,6 +632,9 @@  asmlinkage long sys_epoll_pwait(int epfd, struct epoll_event __user *events,
 				int maxevents, int timeout,
 				const sigset_t __user *sigmask,
 				size_t sigsetsize);
+asmlinkage long sys_epoll_mod_wait(int epfd, int flags,
+				   int ncmds, struct epoll_mod_cmd __user * cmds,
+				   struct epoll_wait_spec __user * spec);
 asmlinkage long sys_gethostname(char __user *name, int len);
 asmlinkage long sys_sethostname(char __user *name, int len);
 asmlinkage long sys_setdomainname(char __user *name, int len);