[Intel-gfx] [PATCH v2] drm/i915: Shrink the GEM kmem_caches upon idling

[Tvrtko Ursulin]

On 16/01/2018 13:05, Chris Wilson wrote:
> When we finally decide the gpu is idle, that is a good time to shrink
> our kmem_caches.
> 
> v2: Comment upon the random sprinkling of rcu_barrier() inside the idle
> worker.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Chris Wilson <chris at chris-wilson.co.uk>
> Cc: Tvrtko Ursulin <tvrtko.ursulin at linux.intel.com>
> ---
>   drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   1 file changed, 30 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
> index 335731c93b4a..61b13fdfaa71 100644
> --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
> +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
> @@ -4716,6 +4716,21 @@ i915_gem_retire_work_handler(struct work_struct *work)
>   	}
>   }
>   
> +static void shrink_caches(struct drm_i915_private *i915)
> +{
> +	/*
> +	 * kmem_cache_shrink() discards empty slabs and reorders partially
> +	 * filled slabs to prioritise allocating from the mostly full slabs,
> +	 * with the aim of reducing fragmentation.
> +	 */
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->priorities);
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->dependencies);
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->requests);
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->luts);
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->vmas);
> +	kmem_cache_shrink(i915->objects);
> +}
> +
>   static inline bool
>   new_requests_since_last_retire(const struct drm_i915_private *i915)
>   {
> @@ -4803,6 +4818,21 @@ i915_gem_idle_work_handler(struct work_struct *work)
>   		GEM_BUG_ON(!dev_priv->gt.awake);
>   		i915_queue_hangcheck(dev_priv);
>   	}
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * We use magical TYPESAFE_BY_RCU kmem_caches whose pages are not
> +	 * returned to the system imediately but only after an RCU grace
> +	 * period. We want to encourage such pages to be returned and so
> +	 * incorporate a RCU barrier here to provide some rate limiting
> +	 * of the driver and flush the old pages before we free a new batch
> +	 * from the next round of shrinking.
> +	 */
> +	rcu_barrier();

Should this go into the conditional below? I don't think it makes a 
difference effectively, but may be more logical.

> +
> +	if (!new_requests_since_last_retire(dev_priv)) {
> +		__i915_gem_free_work(&dev_priv->mm.free_work);

I thought for a bit if re-using the worker from here is completely fine 
but I think it is. We expect only one pass when called from here so 
need_resched will be correctly neutralized/not-relevant from this path. 
Hm, unless if we consider mmap_gtt users.. so we could still have new 
objects appearing on the free_list after the 1st pass. And then 
need_resched might kick us out. What do you think?

Regards,

Tvrtko

> +		shrink_caches(dev_priv);
> +	}
>   }
>   
>   int i915_gem_suspend(struct drm_i915_private *dev_priv)
>