Merge branch 'timers-nohz-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

Pull 'full dynticks' support from Ingo Molnar:
 "This tree from Frederic Weisbecker adds a new, (exciting! :-) core
  kernel feature to the timer and scheduler subsystems: 'full dynticks',
  or CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y.

  This feature extends the nohz variable-size timer tick feature from
  idle to busy CPUs (running at most one task) as well, potentially
  reducing the number of timer interrupts significantly.

  This feature got motivated by real-time folks and the -rt tree, but
  the general utility and motivation of full-dynticks runs wider than
  that:

   - HPC workloads get faster: CPUs running a single task should be able
     to utilize a maximum amount of CPU power.  A periodic timer tick at
     HZ=1000 can cause a constant overhead of up to 1.0%.  This feature
     removes that overhead - and speeds up the system by 0.5%-1.0% on
     typical distro configs even on modern systems.

   - Real-time workload latency reduction: CPUs running critical tasks
     should experience as little jitter as possible.  The last remaining
     source of kernel-related jitter was the periodic timer tick.

   - A single task executing on a CPU is a pretty common situation,
     especially with an increasing number of cores/CPUs, so this feature
     helps desktop and mobile workloads as well.

  The cost of the feature is mainly related to increased timer
  reprogramming overhead when a CPU switches its tick period, and thus
  slightly longer to-idle and from-idle latency.

  Configuration-wise a third mode of operation is added to the existing
  two NOHZ kconfig modes:

   - CONFIG_HZ_PERIODIC: [formerly !CONFIG_NO_HZ], now explicitly named
     as a config option.  This is the traditional Linux periodic tick
     design: there's a HZ tick going on all the time, regardless of
     whether a CPU is idle or not.

   - CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE: [formerly CONFIG_NO_HZ=y], this turns off the
     periodic tick when a CPU enters idle mode.

   - CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL: this new mode, in addition to turning off the
     tick when a CPU is idle, also slows the tick down to 1 Hz (one
     timer interrupt per second) when only a single task is running on a
     CPU.

  The .config behavior is compatible: existing !CONFIG_NO_HZ and
  CONFIG_NO_HZ=y settings get translated to the new values, without the
  user having to configure anything.  CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL is turned off by
  default.

  This feature is based on a lot of infrastructure work that has been
  steadily going upstream in the last 2-3 cycles: related RCU support
  and non-periodic cputime support in particular is upstream already.

  This tree adds the final pieces and activates the feature.  The pull
  request is marked RFC because:

   - it's marked 64-bit only at the moment - the 32-bit support patch is
     small but did not get ready in time.

   - it has a number of fresh commits that came in after the merge
     window.  The overwhelming majority of commits are from before the
     merge window, but still some aspects of the tree are fresh and so I
     marked it RFC.

   - it's a pretty wide-reaching feature with lots of effects - and
     while the components have been in testing for some time, the full
     combination is still not very widely used.  That it's default-off
     should reduce its regression abilities and obviously there are no
     known regressions with CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y enabled either.

   - the feature is not completely idempotent: there is no 100%
     equivalent replacement for a periodic scheduler/timer tick.  In
     particular there's ongoing work to map out and reduce its effects
     on scheduler load-balancing and statistics.  This should not impact
     correctness though, there are no known regressions related to this
     feature at this point.

   - it's a pretty ambitious feature that with time will likely be
     enabled by most Linux distros, and we'd like you to make input on
     its design/implementation, if you dislike some aspect we missed.
     Without flaming us to crisp! :-)

  Future plans:

   - there's ongoing work to reduce 1Hz to 0Hz, to essentially shut off
     the periodic tick altogether when there's a single busy task on a
     CPU.  We'd first like 1 Hz to be exposed more widely before we go
     for the 0 Hz target though.

   - once we reach 0 Hz we can remove the periodic tick assumption from
     nr_running>=2 as well, by essentially interrupting busy tasks only
     as frequently as the sched_latency constraints require us to do -
     once every 4-40 msecs, depending on nr_running.

  I am personally leaning towards biting the bullet and doing this in
  v3.10, like the -rt tree this effort has been going on for too long -
  but the final word is up to you as usual.

  More technical details can be found in Documentation/timers/NO_HZ.txt"

* 'timers-nohz-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (39 commits)
  sched: Keep at least 1 tick per second for active dynticks tasks
  rcu: Fix full dynticks' dependency on wide RCU nocb mode
  nohz: Protect smp_processor_id() in tick_nohz_task_switch()
  nohz_full: Add documentation.
  cputime_nsecs: use math64.h for nsec resolution conversion helpers
  nohz: Select VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING_GEN from full dynticks config
  nohz: Reduce overhead under high-freq idling patterns
  nohz: Remove full dynticks' superfluous dependency on RCU tree
  nohz: Fix unavailable tick_stop tracepoint in dynticks idle
  nohz: Add basic tracing
  nohz: Select wide RCU nocb for full dynticks
  nohz: Disable the tick when irq resume in full dynticks CPU
  nohz: Re-evaluate the tick for the new task after a context switch
  nohz: Prepare to stop the tick on irq exit
  nohz: Implement full dynticks kick
  nohz: Re-evaluate the tick from the scheduler IPI
  sched: New helper to prevent from stopping the tick in full dynticks
  sched: Kick full dynticks CPU that have more than one task enqueued.
  perf: New helper to prevent full dynticks CPUs from stopping tick
  perf: Kick full dynticks CPU if events rotation is needed
  ...

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
index 9653cf2f9727..8920f9f5fa9e 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -1964,6 +1964,14 @@ bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes can also be entirely omitted.
 			Valid arguments: on, off
 			Default: on
 
+	nohz_full=	[KNL,BOOT]
+			In kernels built with CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y, set
+			the specified list of CPUs whose tick will be stopped
+			whenever possible. The boot CPU will be forced outside
+			the range to maintain the timekeeping.
+			The CPUs in this range must also be included in the
+			rcu_nocbs= set.
+
 	noiotrap	[SH] Disables trapped I/O port accesses.
 
 	noirqdebug	[X86-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and