rcu/nocb: Add option to opt rcuo kthreads out of RT priority

This commit introduces a RCU_NOCB_CPU_CB_BOOST Kconfig option that
prevents rcuo kthreads from running at real-time priority, even in
kernels built with RCU_BOOST.  This capability is important to devices
needing low-latency (as in a few milliseconds) response from expedited
RCU grace periods, but which are not running a classic real-time workload.
On such devices, permitting the rcuo kthreads to run at real-time priority
results in unacceptable latencies imposed on the application tasks,
which run as SCHED_OTHER.

See for example the following trace output:

<snip>
<...>-60 [006] d..1 2979.028717: rcu_batch_start: rcu_preempt CBs=34619 bl=270
<snip>

If that rcuop kthread were permitted to run at real-time SCHED_FIFO
priority, it would monopolize its CPU for hundreds of milliseconds
while invoking those 34619 RCU callback functions, which would cause an
unacceptably long latency spike for many application stacks on Android
platforms.

However, some existing real-time workloads require that callback
invocation run at SCHED_FIFO priority, for example, those running on
systems with heavy SCHED_OTHER background loads.  (It is the real-time
system's administrator's responsibility to make sure that important
real-time tasks run at a higher priority than do RCU's kthreads.)

Therefore, this new RCU_NOCB_CPU_CB_BOOST Kconfig option defaults to
"y" on kernels built with PREEMPT_RT and defaults to "n" otherwise.
The effect is to preserve current behavior for real-time systems, but for
other systems to allow expedited RCU grace periods to run with real-time
priority while continuing to invoke RCU callbacks as SCHED_OTHER.

As you would expect, this RCU_NOCB_CPU_CB_BOOST Kconfig option has no
effect except on CPUs with offloaded RCU callbacks.

Signed-off-by: Uladzislau Rezki (Sony) <urezki@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@joelfernandes.org>
Reviewed-by: Neeraj Upadhyay <quic_neeraju@quicinc.com>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h b/kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h
index 60cc92cc6655..fa8e4f82e60c 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h
@@ -1315,8 +1315,9 @@ static void rcu_spawn_cpu_nocb_kthread(int cpu)
 	if (WARN_ONCE(IS_ERR(t), "%s: Could not start rcuo CB kthread, OOM is now expected behavior\n", __func__))
 		goto end;
 
-	if (kthread_prio)
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_RCU_NOCB_CPU_CB_BOOST) && kthread_prio)
 		sched_setscheduler_nocheck(t, SCHED_FIFO, &sp);
+
 	WRITE_ONCE(rdp->nocb_cb_kthread, t);
 	WRITE_ONCE(rdp->nocb_gp_kthread, rdp_gp->nocb_gp_kthread);
 	return;