FOR REVIEW: New x86-64 vsyscall vgetcpu()
Chase Venters
chase.venters@clientec.com
Fri Jun 16 22:14:00 GMT 2006
On Fri, 16 Jun 2006, Zoltan Menyhart wrote:
> Andi Kleen wrote:
>
>> That is not how user space TLS works. It usually has a base a register.
>
> Can you please give me a real life (simplified) example?
>
>> This means it cannot be cache colored (because you would need a static
>> offset) and you couldn't share task_structs on a page.
>
> I do not see the problem. Can you explain please?
> E.g. the scheduler pulls a task instead of the current one. The CPU
> will see "current->thread_info.cpu"-s of all the tasks at the same
> offset anyway.
Memory maps have to fall on page boundaries for lots of various reasons.
Assuming a 16-word cache line, you've got plenty of spots you could align
task_struct to within a page. (That number of spots is actually
constrained by either sizeof(task_struct) or the number of colors).
The bottom line is that task_struct won't always be on a page boundary. If
it's not on a page boundary in the physical page frames, it's not going to
be on a page boundary in virtual memory either.
(Note also that if two task_structs shared a page, you'd have an
information leak. I'm not sure with sizeof(task_struct) and cache
alignment if task_structs are small enough for sharing, though. Definitely
on hugepages.)
Thanks,
Chase
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