[Qemu-devel] [PATCH v6 03/19] tcg: add kick timer for single-threaded vCPU emulation

[Alex Bennée]

Currently we rely on the side effect of the main loop grabbing the
iothread_mutex to give any long running basic block chains a kick to
ensure the next vCPU is scheduled. As this code is being re-factored and
rationalised we now do it explicitly here.

Signed-off-by: Alex Bennée <address@hidden>

---
v2
  - re-base fixes
  - get_ticks_per_sec() -> NANOSECONDS_PER_SEC
v3
  - add define for TCG_KICK_FREQ
  - fix checkpatch warning
v4
  - wrap next calc in inline qemu_tcg_next_kick() instead of macro
v5
  - move all kick code into own section
  - use global for timer
  - add helper functions to start/stop timer
  - stop timer when all cores paused
---
 cpus.c | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+)

diff --git a/cpus.c b/cpus.c
index 73ff851..b3bf7b8 100644
--- a/cpus.c
+++ b/cpus.c
@@ -736,6 +736,52 @@ void configure_icount(QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
 }
 
 /***********************************************************/
+/* TCG vCPU kick timer
+ *
+ * The kick timer is responsible for moving single threaded vCPU
+ * emulation on to the next vCPU. If more than one vCPU is running a
+ * timer event with force a cpu->exit so the next vCPU can get
+ * scheduled.
+ *
+ * The timer is removed if all vCPUs are idle and restarted again once
+ * idleness is complete.
+ */
+
+static QEMUTimer *tcg_kick_vcpu_timer;
+
+static void qemu_cpu_kick_no_halt(void);
+
+#define TCG_KICK_PERIOD (NANOSECONDS_PER_SECOND / 10)
+
+static inline int64_t qemu_tcg_next_kick(void)
+{
+    return qemu_clock_get_ns(QEMU_CLOCK_VIRTUAL) + TCG_KICK_PERIOD;
+}
+
+static void kick_tcg_thread(void *opaque)
+{
+    timer_mod(tcg_kick_vcpu_timer, qemu_tcg_next_kick());
+    qemu_cpu_kick_no_halt();
+}
+
+static void start_tcg_kick_timer(void)
+{
+    if (!tcg_kick_vcpu_timer && CPU_NEXT(first_cpu)) {
+        tcg_kick_vcpu_timer = timer_new_ns(QEMU_CLOCK_VIRTUAL,  
kick_tcg_thread, NULL);
+        timer_mod(tcg_kick_vcpu_timer, qemu_tcg_next_kick());
+    }
+}
+
+static void stop_tcg_kick_timer(void)
+{
+    if (tcg_kick_vcpu_timer) {
+        timer_del(tcg_kick_vcpu_timer);
+        tcg_kick_vcpu_timer = NULL;
+    }
+}
+
+
+/***********************************************************/
 void hw_error(const char *fmt, ...)
 {
     va_list ap;
@@ -989,9 +1035,12 @@ static void qemu_wait_io_event_common(CPUState *cpu)
 static void qemu_tcg_wait_io_event(CPUState *cpu)
 {
     while (all_cpu_threads_idle()) {
+        stop_tcg_kick_timer();
         qemu_cond_wait(cpu->halt_cond, &qemu_global_mutex);
     }
 
+    start_tcg_kick_timer();
+
     while (iothread_requesting_mutex) {
         qemu_cond_wait(&qemu_io_proceeded_cond, &qemu_global_mutex);
     }
@@ -1191,6 +1240,15 @@ static void deal_with_unplugged_cpus(void)
     }
 }
 
+/* Single-threaded TCG
+ *
+ * In the single-threaded case each vCPU is simulated in turn. If
+ * there is more than a single vCPU we create a simple timer to kick
+ * the vCPU and ensure we don't get stuck in a tight loop in one vCPU.
+ * This is done explicitly rather than relying on side-effects
+ * elsewhere.
+ */
+
 static void *qemu_tcg_cpu_thread_fn(void *arg)
 {
     CPUState *cpu = arg;
@@ -1217,6 +1275,8 @@ static void *qemu_tcg_cpu_thread_fn(void *arg)
         }
     }
 
+    start_tcg_kick_timer();
+
     /* process any pending work */
     atomic_mb_set(&exit_request, 1);
 
-- 
2.10.1