[V5,1/2] qemu: Generic task offloading framework: threadlets

From: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

This patch creates a generic asynchronous-task-offloading infrastructure named
threadlets. The core idea has been borrowed from the threading framework that
is being used by paio.

The reason for creating this generic infrastructure is so that other subsystems,
such as virtio-9p could make use of it for offloading tasks that could block.

The patch creates a global queue on-to which subsystems can queue their tasks to
be executed asynchronously.

The patch also provides API's that allow a subsystem to create a private queue
with an associated pool of threads.

[ego@in.ibm.com: Facelift of the code, Documentation, cancel_threadlet
 and other helpers]

Signed-off-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Gautham R Shenoy <ego@in.ibm.com>
---
 Makefile.objs          |    3 +
 docs/async-support.txt |  141 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 qemu-threadlets.c      |  170 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 qemu-threadlets.h      |   48 ++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 361 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 docs/async-support.txt
 create mode 100644 qemu-threadlets.c
 create mode 100644 qemu-threadlets.h

On 06/22/2010 01:18 PM, Gautham R Shenoy wrote:
> From: Aneesh Kumar K.V<aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>
> This patch creates a generic asynchronous-task-offloading infrastructure named
> threadlets. The core idea has been borrowed from the threading framework that
> is being used by paio.
>
> The reason for creating this generic infrastructure is so that other subsystems,
> such as virtio-9p could make use of it for offloading tasks that could block.
>
> The patch creates a global queue on-to which subsystems can queue their tasks to
> be executed asynchronously.
>
> The patch also provides API's that allow a subsystem to create a private queue
> with an associated pool of threads.
>
> [ego@in.ibm.com: Facelift of the code, Documentation, cancel_threadlet
>   and other helpers]
>
> Signed-off-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V<aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Gautham R Shenoy<ego@in.ibm.com>
> ---
>   Makefile.objs          |    3 +
>   docs/async-support.txt |  141 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   qemu-threadlets.c      |  170 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   qemu-threadlets.h      |   48 ++++++++++++++
>   4 files changed, 361 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 docs/async-support.txt
>   create mode 100644 qemu-threadlets.c
>   create mode 100644 qemu-threadlets.h
>
> diff --git a/Makefile.objs b/Makefile.objs
> index 1a942e5..5d48ace 100644
> --- a/Makefile.objs
> +++ b/Makefile.objs
> @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ qobject-obj-y += qerror.o
>
>   block-obj-y = cutils.o cache-utils.o qemu-malloc.o qemu-option.o module.o
>   block-obj-y += nbd.o block.o aio.o aes.o osdep.o qemu-config.o
> +block-obj-$(CONFIG_POSIX) += qemu-thread.o
> +block-obj-$(CONFIG_POSIX) += qemu-threadlets.o
>   block-obj-$(CONFIG_POSIX) += posix-aio-compat.o
>   block-obj-$(CONFIG_LINUX_AIO) += linux-aio.o
>
> @@ -109,7 +111,6 @@ common-obj-y += iov.o
>   common-obj-$(CONFIG_VNC_TLS) += vnc-tls.o vnc-auth-vencrypt.o
>   common-obj-$(CONFIG_VNC_SASL) += vnc-auth-sasl.o
>   common-obj-$(CONFIG_COCOA) += cocoa.o
> -common-obj-$(CONFIG_IOTHREAD) += qemu-thread.o
>   common-obj-y += notify.o event_notifier.o
>   common-obj-y += qemu-timer.o
>
> diff --git a/docs/async-support.txt b/docs/async-support.txt
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..0f12c8d
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/docs/async-support.txt
> @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
> +== How to use the various asynchronous models supported in Qemu ==
> +
> +== Threadlets ==
> +
> +Q.1: What are threadlets ?
> +A.1: Threadlets is an infrastructure within QEMU that allows other subsystems
> +     to offload possibly blocking work to a queue to be processed by a pool
> +     of threads asynchrnonously.
> +
> +Q.2: When would one want to use threadlets ?
> +A.2: Threadlets are useful when there are operations that can be performed
> +     outside the context of the VCPU/IO threads inorder to free these latter
> +     to service any other guest requests.
> +
> +Q.3: I have some work that can be executed in an asynchronous context. How
> +     should I go about it ?
> +A.3: One could follow the steps listed below:
> +
> +     - Define a function which would do the asynchrnous work.
> +	void my_threadlet_func(ThreadletWork *work)
> +	{
> +	}
> +
> +     - Declare an object of type ThreadletWork;
> +	ThreadletWork work;
> +
> +
> +     - Assign a value to the "func" member of ThreadletWork object.
> +	work.func = my_threadlet_func;
> +
> +     - Submit the threadlet to the global queue.
> +	submit_threadlet(&work);
> +
> +     - Continue servicing some other guest operations.
> +
> +Q.4: I want to my_threadlet_func to access some non-global data. How do I do
> +     that ?
> +A.4: Suppose you want my_threadlet_func to access some non-global data-object
> +     of type myPrivateData. In that case one could follow the following steps.
> +
> +     - Define a member of the type ThreadletWork within myPrivateData.
> +	typdef myPrivateData {
> +		...;
> +		...;
> +		...;
> +		ThreadletWork work;
> +	} myPrivateData;
> +
> +	myPrivateData myData;
> +
> +     - Initialize myData.work as described in A.3
> +	myData.work.func = my_threadlet_func;
> +	submit_threadlet(&myData.work);
> +
> +     - Access the myData object inside my_threadlet_func() using container_of
> +       primitive
> +	void my_threadlet_func(ThreadletWork *work)
> +	{
> +		myPrivateData *mydata_ptr;
> +		mydata_ptr = container_of(work, myPrivateData, work);
> +
> +		/* mydata_ptr now points to myData object */
> +	}
> +
> +Q.5: Are there any precautions one must take while sharing data with the
> +     Asynchrnous thread-pool ?
> +A.5: Yes, make sure that the helper function of the type my_threadlet_func()
> +     does not access/modify data when it can be accessed or modified in the
> +     context of VCPU thread or IO thread. This is because the asynchronous
> +     threads in the pool can run in parallel with the VCPU/IOThreads as shown
> +     in the figure.
> +
> +     A typical workflow is as follows:
> +
> +              VCPU/IOThread
> +                   |
> +                   | (1)
> +                   |
> +                   V
> +                Offload work              (2)
> +      |------->  to threadlets ----------------------------->  Helper thread
> +      |            |                                               |
> +      |            |                                               |
> +      |            | (3)                                           | (4)
> +      |            |                                               |
> +      |         Handle other Guest requests                        |
> +      |            |                                               |
> +      |            |                                               V
> +      |            | (3)                                  Signal the I/O Thread
> +      |(6)         |                                               |
> +      |            |                                              /
> +      |            |                                             /
> +      |            V                                            /
> +      |          Do the post<---------------------------------/
> +      |          processing               (5)
> +      |            |
> +      |            | (6)
> +      |            V
> +      |-Yes------ More async work?
> +                   |
> +                   | (7)
> +	           No
> +                   |
> +                   |
> +                   .
> +                   .
> +
> +    Hence one needs to make sure that in the steps (3) and (4) which run in
> +    parallel, any global data is accessed within only one context.
> +
> +Q.6: I have queued a threadlet which I want to cancel. How do I do that ?
> +A.6: Threadlets framework provides the API cancel_threadlet:
> +       - int cancel_threadlet(ThreadletWork *work)
> +
> +     The API scans the ThreadletQueue to see if (work) is present. If it finds
> +     work, it'll dequeue work and return 0.
> +
> +     On the other hand, if it does not find the (work) in the ThreadletQueue,
> +     then it'll return 1. This can imply two things. Either the work is being
> +     processed by one of the helper threads or it has been processed. The
> +     threadlet infrastructure currently _does_not_ distinguish between these
> +     two and the onus is on the caller to do that.
> +
> +Q.7: Apart from the global pool of threads, can I have my own private Queue ?
> +A.7: Yes, the threadlets framework allows subsystems to create their own private
> +     queues with associated pools of threads.
> +
> +     - Define a PrivateQueue
> +       ThreadletQueue myQueue;
> +
> +     - Initialize it:
> +       threadlet_queue_init(&myQueue, my_max_threads, my_min_threads);
> +       where my_max_threads is the maximum number of threads that can be in the
> +       thread pool and my_min_threads is the minimum number of active threads
> +       that can be in the thread-pool.
> +
> +     - Submit work:
> +       submit_threadlet_to_queue(&myQueue,&my_work);
> +
> +     - Cancel work:
> +       cancel_threadlet_on_queue(&myQueue,&my_work);
> diff --git a/qemu-threadlets.c b/qemu-threadlets.c
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..13f6bb8
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/qemu-threadlets.c
> @@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
> +/*
> + * Threadlet support for offloading tasks to be executed asynchronously
> + *
> + * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2008
> + * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2010
> + *
> + * Authors:
> + *  Anthony Liguori<aliguori@us.ibm.com>
> + *  Aneesh Kumar K.V<aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> + *  Gautham R Shenoy<ego@in.ibm.com>
> + *
> + * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2.  See
> + * the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
> + */
> +
> +#include "qemu-threadlets.h"
> +#include "osdep.h"
> +
> +#define MAX_GLOBAL_THREADS  64
> +#define MIN_GLOBAL_THREADS  64
> +ThreadletQueue globalqueue;
> +static int globalqueue_init;
> +
> +static void *threadlet_worker(void *data)
> +{
> +    ThreadletQueue *queue = data;
> +
> +    while (1) {
> +        ThreadletWork *work;
> +        int ret = 0;
> +        qemu_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
> +
> +        while (QTAILQ_EMPTY(&(queue->request_list))&&
> +               (ret != ETIMEDOUT)) {
> +            ret = qemu_cond_timedwait(&(queue->cond),
> +					&(queue->lock), 10*100000);
> +        }
> +
> +        assert(queue->idle_threads != 0);
> +        if (QTAILQ_EMPTY(&(queue->request_list))) {
> +            if (queue->cur_threads>  queue->min_threads) {
> +                /* We retain the minimum number of threads */
> +                break;
> +            }
> +        } else {
> +            work = QTAILQ_FIRST(&(queue->request_list));
> +            QTAILQ_REMOVE(&(queue->request_list), work, node);
> +
> +            queue->idle_threads--;
> +            qemu_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
> +
> +            /* execute the work function */
> +            work->func(work);
> +
> +            qemu_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
> +            queue->idle_threads++;
> +        }
> +        qemu_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
> +    }
> +
> +    queue->idle_threads--;
> +    queue->cur_threads--;
> +    qemu_mutex_unlock(&queue->lock);
> +
> +    return NULL;
> +}
> +
> +static void spawn_threadlet(ThreadletQueue *queue)
> +{
> +    QemuThread thread;
> +
> +    queue->cur_threads++;
> +    queue->idle_threads++;
> +
> +    qemu_thread_create(&thread, threadlet_worker, queue);
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * submit_threadlet_to_queue: Submit a new task to a private queue to be
> + *                            executed asynchronously.
> + * @queue: Per-subsystem private queue to which the new task needs
> + *         to be submitted.
> + * @work: Contains information about the task that needs to be submitted.
> + */
> +void submit_threadlet_to_queue(ThreadletQueue *queue, ThreadletWork *work)
> +{
> +    qemu_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
> +    if (queue->idle_threads == 0&&  queue->cur_threads<  queue->max_threads) {
> +        spawn_threadlet(queue);
> +    }
> +    QTAILQ_INSERT_TAIL(&(queue->request_list), work, node);
> +    qemu_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
> +    qemu_cond_signal(&(queue->cond));
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * submit_threadlet: Submit to the global queue a new task to be executed
> + *                   asynchronously.
> + * @work: Contains information about the task that needs to be submitted.
> + */
> +void submit_threadlet(ThreadletWork *work)
> +{
> +    if (unlikely(!globalqueue_init)) {
> +        threadlet_queue_init(&globalqueue, MAX_GLOBAL_THREADS,
> +                                MIN_GLOBAL_THREADS);
> +        globalqueue_init = 1;
> +    }
> +
> +    submit_threadlet_to_queue(&globalqueue, work);
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * cancel_threadlet_on_queue: Cancel a task queued on a Queue.
> + * @queue: The queue containing the task to be cancelled.
> + * @work: Contains the information of the task that needs to be cancelled.
> + *
> + * Returns: 0 if the task is successfully cancelled.
> + *          1 otherwise.
> + */
> +int cancel_threadlet_on_queue(ThreadletQueue *queue, ThreadletWork *work)
> +{
> +    ThreadletWork *ret_work;
> +    int found = 0;
> +
> +    qemu_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
> +    QTAILQ_FOREACH(ret_work,&(queue->request_list), node) {
> +        if (ret_work == work) {
> +            QTAILQ_REMOVE(&(queue->request_list), ret_work, node);
> +            found = 1;
> +            break;
> +        }
> +    }
> +    qemu_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
> +
> +    if (found) {
> +        return 0;
> +    }
> +
> +    return 1;
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * cancel_threadlet: Cancel a task queued on the global queue.
> + * @work: Contains the information of the task that needs to be cancelled.
> + *
> + * Returns: 0 if the task is successfully cancelled.
> + *          1 otherwise.
> + */
> +int cancel_threadlet(ThreadletWork *work)
> +{
> +    return cancel_threadlet_on_queue(&globalqueue, work);
> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * threadlet_queue_init: Initialize a threadlet queue.
> + * @queue: The threadlet queue to be initialized.
> + * @max_threads: Maximum number of threads processing the queue.
> + * @min_threads: Minimum number of threads processing the queue.
> + */
> +void threadlet_queue_init(ThreadletQueue *queue,
> +				    int max_threads, int min_threads)
> +{
> +    queue->cur_threads  = 0;
> +    queue->idle_threads = 0;
> +    queue->max_threads  = max_threads;
> +    queue->min_threads  = min_threads;
> +    QTAILQ_INIT(&(queue->request_list));
> +    qemu_mutex_init(&(queue->lock));
> +    qemu_cond_init(&(queue->cond));
> +}
> diff --git a/qemu-threadlets.h b/qemu-threadlets.h
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..d58c10f
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/qemu-threadlets.h
> @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
> +/*
> + * Threadlet support for offloading tasks to be executed asynchronously
> + *
> + * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2008
> + * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2010
> + *
> + * Authors:
> + *  Anthony Liguori<aliguori@us.ibm.com>
> + *  Aneesh Kumar K.V<aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> + *  Gautham R Shenoy<ego@in.ibm.com>
> + *
> + * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2.  See
> + * the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
> + */
> +
> +#ifndef QEMU_ASYNC_WORK_H
> +#define QEMU_ASYNC_WORK_H
> +
> +#include "qemu-queue.h"
> +#include "qemu-common.h"
> +#include "qemu-thread.h"
> +
> +typedef struct ThreadletQueue
> +{
> +    QemuMutex lock;
> +    QemuCond cond;
> +    int max_threads;
> +    int min_threads;
> +    int cur_threads;
> +    int idle_threads;
> +    QTAILQ_HEAD(, threadlet_work) request_list;
> +} ThreadletQueue;
> +
> +typedef struct threadlet_work
> +{
> +    QTAILQ_ENTRY(threadlet_work) node;
> +    void (*func)(struct threadlet_work *work);
> +} ThreadletWork;
> +
> +extern void submit_threadlet_to_queue(ThreadletQueue *queue,
> +                                      ThreadletWork *work);
> +extern void submit_threadlet(ThreadletWork *work);
> +extern int cancel_threadlet_on_queue(ThreadletQueue *queue,
> +                                        ThreadletWork *work);
> +extern int cancel_threadlet(ThreadletWork *work);
> +extern void threadlet_queue_init(ThreadletQueue *queue, int max_threads,
> +                                 int min_threads);
> +#endif
>

Acked-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>