Cc: Bodo Eggert <7eggert@...>, Ray Lee <ray-lk@...>, Matt Mackall <mpm@...>, Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...>, Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@...>, Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...>, William Lee Irwin III <wli@...>, David Chinner <dgc@...>, Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...>
It can be better, but the worst case stays 4K + 4K - unless one CPU will
walk over to the next and nicely ask for a cup of stack.
Therefore you can discuss 4K + 4K or 4K + 4K + 4K, or 4K + 4K * \inf. It
won't change a thing:
1) It all can be reduced to 4K + 4K by asuming all IRQ happen on one CPU.
2) Even if the interrupts decide not to happen on one CPU, you still can't
fit that possible 5K into 4K.
Having a local stack per CPU helps locality, and it's gootd, but that's
about it.
One case is reason enough not to enable 4K-stacks per default, and this
is a common server setup. "server" as in "I need a reliable system".
"Look how fast I crashed!" doesn't buy you anything. In order to finish
first, you first got to finish.
And they can turn it on.
If you designed a car, you would also go for breaks with a well-known
problem just because they weight less and all that people not crossing
mountains would be happy about the weight benefit - that is if they'd
notice, wouldn't you?
Please post a list of things you have designed, so I can avoid them.
I put the facts onto the ground. If you're getting down, you may stumble
on them. Beware
So what did you say about the worst case stack size being bigger than 4K?
That's correct, you choose to put it aside as a minor use case. Yea, it's
just the combination you'd choose for a reliable server setup, the users
won't have a problem when their systems crash ...
Was your claim about each CPU having a separate stack helping your cause?
No, everybody can see it's not. That is, except for you, your CPU will
just borrow some, since their neighbours have some free stack.
But let's not stop here: You claimed: "Unshared interrupt
stacks make for more determistisc behaviour, so you'd have a harder time
proven anything to some set limit of uncertainty with the shared 8K stacks
than with the unshared 4K stacks."
So you want to tell me I can't prove 8K stacks are safe - you are right.
But can you prove 4K stacks are safe? You can't either. But you want to be
able to prove it. I told you to stick to your words - go and prove 4K+4K
to be safe. What did you do? You chose to ignore that.
I bet you don't even consider proving 4K stacks to be correct, nor do you
know anyone who would try that in the near future. And besides that, you
know at least one case where your proof would fail. So why would you talk
about proofs? Do you think you can trick me into believing a crashing
system would work more correctly than a non-crashing one, just by
mentioning the possibility of having it easier to make a proof?
Besides that, I told you you can separate unshared interrupt stacks from
4K stacks. And yet, you still argue as if 4K stacks are required for
having a separate interrupt stack.
So who's ignoring facts, who is talking crap?
I know very well you're going to turn linux into a bleeding edge system
where you're supposed to get some bad surprises on an update, unless you
happen not to hit the error case. That's not the way I'd like it to go.
You may use -mm, you'll get the 4K stacks per default, be happy wih them.
Would you use a distribution crashing on your servers? Or would you change
the distribution and spread the word not to use redhat?
--
"'Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a
sure sign of a diseased mind.'"
-- Terry Pratchett in "Eric"
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