[PATCH v1] mm/contpte: Optimize loop to reduce redundant operations

[Lance Yang]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2025 at 8:56 PM Xavier <xavier_qy at 163.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi Lance,
>
> Thanks for your feedback, my response is as follows.
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Xavier
>
>
>
>
>
> At 2025-04-07 19:29:22, "Lance Yang" <ioworker0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >Thanks for the patch. Would the following change be better?
> >
> >diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
> >index 55107d27d3f8..64eb3b2fbf06 100644
> >--- a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
> >+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
> >@@ -174,6 +174,9 @@ pte_t contpte_ptep_get(pte_t *ptep, pte_t orig_pte)
> >
> >               if (pte_young(pte))
> >                       orig_pte = pte_mkyoung(orig_pte);
> >+
> >+              if (pte_young(orig_pte) && pte_dirty(orig_pte))
> >+                      break;
> >       }
> >
> >       return orig_pte;
> >--
> >
> >We can check the orig_pte flags directly instead of using extra boolean
> >variables, which gives us an early-exit when both dirty and young flags
> >are set.
> Your way of writing the code is indeed more concise. However, I think
>  using boolean variables might be more efficient. Although it introduces
>  additional variables, comparing boolean values is likely to be more
>  efficient than checking bit settings.
>
> >
> >Also, is this optimization really needed for the common case?
> This function is on a high-frequency execution path. During debugging,
>  I found that in most cases, the first few pages are already marked as
>  both dirty and young. But currently, the program still has to complete
>  the entire loop of 16 ptep iterations, which seriously reduces the efficiency.

Hmm... agreed that this patch helps when early PTEs are dirty/young, but
for late-ones-only cases, it only introduces overhead with no benefit, IIUC.

So, let's wait for folks to take a look ;)

Thanks,
Lance

> >
> >Thanks,
> >Lance