629 lines
26 KiB
Text
629 lines
26 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
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<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
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%articles.ent;
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<!ENTITY t.releng.3 "<literal>RELENG_3</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.4 "<literal>RELENG_4</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.5 "<literal>RELENG_5</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.5.1 "<literal>RELENG_5_1</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.5.2 "<literal>RELENG_5_2</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.5.3 "<literal>RELENG_5_3</literal>">
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<!ENTITY t.releng.head "<literal>HEAD</literal>">
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]>
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<article>
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<articleinfo>
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<title>The Road Map for 5-STABLE</title>
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<authorgroup>
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<corpauthor>The &os; Release Engineering Team</corpauthor>
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</authorgroup>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<copyright>
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<year>2003</year>
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<holder role="mailto:re@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Release
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Engineering Team</holder>
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</copyright>
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<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
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&tm-attrib.freebsd;
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&tm-attrib.ieee;
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&tm-attrib.intel;
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&tm-attrib.sparc;
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&tm-attrib.sun;
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&tm-attrib.opengroup;
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&tm-attrib.general;
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</legalnotice>
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<abstract>
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<para> This document is now mostly of historical value. It
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presented a roadmap for the development of &os;'s &t.releng.5;
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branch. It was originally written in February 2003 (between
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the 5.0 and 5.1 releases), and was intended to provide a plan
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for making the &t.releng.5; branch <quote>stable</quote>, both
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in terms of code quality and finalization of various
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APIs/ABIs. For a different perspective, the article
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<ulink url="&url.articles.version-guide;">
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<quote>Choosing the &os; Version That Is Right For You</quote>
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</ulink>
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may be of interest. The version-guide article was written in August
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2005 (two and a half years later), and it contains a section
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discussing how these plans and events actually unfolded, as well as
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some lessons learned.</para>
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</abstract>
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</articleinfo>
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<sect1 id="intro">
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<title>Introduction and Background</title>
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<para>After nearly three years of work, &os; 5.0 was released in January
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of 2003. Features like the GEOM block layer, Mandatory Access Controls,
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ACPI, &sparc64; and ia64 platform support, and UFS snapshots, background
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filesystem checks, and 64-bit inode sizes make it an exciting operating
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system for both desktop and enterprise users. However, some important
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features are not complete. The foundations for fine-grained locking
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and preemption in the kernel exist, but much more work is left to be
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done. Performance and stability compared to &os;
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4.<replaceable>X</replaceable> has declined and must be restored and
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surpassed.</para>
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<para>This is somewhat similar to the situation that &os; faced in the
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3.<replaceable>X</replaceable> series. Work on 3-CURRENT trudged along
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seemingly forever, and finally a cry was made to <quote>just ship
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it</quote> and clean up later. This decision resulted in the 3.0 and
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3.1 releases being very unsatisfying for most, and it was not until 3.2
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that the series was considered <quote>stable</quote>. To make matters
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worse, the &t.releng.3; branch was created along with the 3.0 release,
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and the &t.releng.head; branch was allowed to advance immediately
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towards 4-CURRENT. This resulted in a quick divergence between
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&t.releng.head; and &t.releng.3;, making maintenance of the &t.releng.3;
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branch very difficult. &os; 2.2.8 was left for quite a while as the
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last production-quality version of &os;.</para>
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<para>Our intent is to avoid repeating that scenario with &os; 5.X.
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Delaying the &t.releng.5; branch until it is stable and production quality
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will ensure that it stays maintainable and provides a compelling reason
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to upgrade from 4.<replaceable>X</replaceable>. To do this, we must
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identify the current areas of weakness and set clear goals for
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resolving them. This document contains what we as the release
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engineering team feel are the milestones and issues that must be
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resolved for the &t.releng.5; branch. It does not dictate every aspect of
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&os; development, and we welcome further input. Nothing that follows
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is meant to be a sleight against any person or group, or to trivialize
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any work that has been done. There are some significant issues,
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though, that need decisive and unbiased action.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="major-issues">
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<title>Major issues</title>
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<para>The success of the 5.<replaceable>X</replaceable> series hinges on
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the ability to deliver fine-grained threading and re-entrancy in the
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kernel (also known as SMPng) and kernel-supported POSIX threads in
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userland, while not sacrificing overall system stability or
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performance.</para>
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<sect2 id="SMPng">
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<title>SMPng</title>
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<para>The state of SMPng and kernel lockdown is the biggest concern for
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5.<replaceable>X</replaceable>. To date, few major systems have come
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out from under the kernel-wide mutex known as <quote>Giant</quote>.
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The SMP status page at <ulink url="&url.base;/smp"></ulink>
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provides a comprehensive breakdown
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of the overall SMPng status. Status specific to SMPng progress in
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device drivers can be found at
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<ulink url="&url.base;/projects/busdma"></ulink>.
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In summary:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>VM: Kernel malloc is locked and free of Giant. The UMA zone
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allocator is also free of Giant. vm_object locking is in progress
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and is an important step to making the buffer/cache free of
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Giant. Pmap locking remains to be started.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>GEOM: The GEOM block layer was designed to run free of Giant
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and allow GEOM modules and underlying block drivers to run free
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of Giant. Currently, only the &man.ata.4; and &man.aac.4; drivers
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are locked and run without Giant. Work on other block drivers is
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in progress. Locking the CAM subsystem is required for nearly all
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SCSI drivers to run without Giant; this work has not started
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yet.</para>
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<para>Additionally, GEOM has the potential to suffer performance loss
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due to its upcall and downcall data paths happening in kernel threads.
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Improved lightweight context switches might help this.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Network: Work has restarted on locking the network stack.
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Routing tables, ARP, bridge, IPFW, Fast-Forward, TCP, UDP, IP,
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Fast IPSEC, and interface layers are being targeted initially, along
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with several Ethernet device drivers. The socket layer, IPv6, and
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other protocol layers will be targeted later. The primary goal
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of this work is to regain the performance found in
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&os; 4.<replaceable>X</replaceable>. The cost of context switching
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to the device driver ithreads and the netisr is still hampering
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performance.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>VFS: Initial pre-cleanup started.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>buffer/cache: Initial work complete on locking the buffer.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Proc: Initial proc locking is in place, further progress is
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expected for &os; 5.2.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>CAM: No significant work has occurred on the CAM SCSI
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layer.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Newbus: some work has started on locking down the device_t
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structure.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Pipes: complete</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>File descriptors: complete.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Process accounting: jails, credentials, MAC labels, and
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scheduler are out from under Giant.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>MAC Framework: complete</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Timekeeping: complete</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>kernel encryption: crypto drivers and core &man.crypto.4;
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framework are Giant-free. KAME IPsec has not been locked.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Sound subsystem: complete, but lock order reversal problems seem
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to persist.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>kernel preemption: preemption for interrupt threads is enabled.
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However, contention due to Giant covering much of the kernel and
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most of the device driver interrupt routines causes excessive
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context switches and might actually be hurting performance. Work
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is underway to explore ways to make preemption be
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conditional.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="interrupts">
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<title>Interrupt latency and servicing</title>
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<para>SMPng introduced the concept of dedicating kernel threads, known as
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ithreads, to servicing interrupts. With this, driver interrupt
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service routines are allowed to block for mutexes, memory allocations,
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etc. While this makes writing drivers easier, it introduces considerable
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latency into the system due to the complete process context switch which must
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be performed in order to service the ithread. This is aggravated by the
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extensive coverage over the kernel by the Giant mutex, and often results
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in multiple sleeps and context switches in order to service an interrupt.
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Drivers that register their interrupt as INTR_MPSAFE are less likely to
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feel these aggravating effects, but the overhead of doing a context
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switch remains. Interrupt service routines that are registered as
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INTR_FAST are run directly from the interrupt context and do not suffer
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these problems at all. However, the INTR_FAST property forces the
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interrupt line to be exclusive; no sharing can occur on it. The
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proliferation of shared interrupts on PC systems makes this
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undesirable.</para>
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<para>Several ideas have been proposed to help combat this problem:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Special casing ithreads to be lightweight is a possibility. This
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might involve reducing the amount of saved context for the ithread,
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stack-borrowing from another kthread, and/or creating a new fast-path
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to avoid the mi_switch() routine.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>A new interrupt model can be introduced to allow drivers to
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register an 'interrupt filter' along with a normal service routine.
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This would be similar to the Mac OS X model in use today. Interrupt
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filter routines would allow the driver to determine if it is
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interested in servicing the interrupt, allow it to squelch the
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interrupt source, and possibly determine and schedule service
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actions. It would run in the same context as the low-level interrupt
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service routine, so sleeping would be strictly forbidden. If actions
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that result in sleeping or blocking for long periods are required,
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the filter would signal to the caller that its normal ithread routine
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should be scheduled.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="KSE">
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<title>Kernel-supported application threads</title>
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<para>The FreeBSD 5.1 development cycle saw the KSE package jump into a
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highly usable state. THR, an alternate threading package based on some
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of the KSE kernel primitives but implementing purely 1:1 scheduling
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semantics also appeared and is in a similarly experimental but usable
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state. Users may interchange these two libraries along with the legacy
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libc_r library via relinking their apps or by using the new libmap
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feature of the runtime linker. This excellent progress must be driven
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to completion before the &t.releng.5; branch point so that the libc_r
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package can be deprecated.</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>The kernel and userland components for KSE and THR must be
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completed for all Tier-1 platforms. The decision on which thread
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package to sanction as the default will likely be made on a
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per-platform basis depending on the stability and completeness of
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each package.</para>
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<para>
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<table id=KSETable>
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<title>KSE Status</title>
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<tgroup cols="4">
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<thead>
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<row>
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<entry>Platform</entry>
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<entry>Kernel</entry>
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<entry>Userland</entry>
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<entry>Works?</entry>
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</row>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<row>
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<entry>i386</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>alpha</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>sparc64</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>ia64</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>amd64</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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</tbody>
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</tgroup>
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</table>
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<table id=THRTable>
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<title>THR Status</title>
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<tgroup cols="4">
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<thead>
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<row>
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<entry>Platform</entry>
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<entry>Kernel</entry>
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<entry>Userland</entry>
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<entry>Works?</entry>
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</row>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<row>
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<entry>i386</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>alpha</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>sparc64</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>ia64</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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<entry>YES</entry>
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</row>
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<row>
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<entry>amd64</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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<entry>NO</entry>
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</row>
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</tbody>
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</tgroup>
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</table>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>KSE must pass the ACE test suite on all Tier-1 platforms.
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Additional real-world testing must also be performed to ensure
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that the libraries are indeed useful. At a minimum, the following
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packages should be tested:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>OpenOffice</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>KDE Desktop</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Apache 2.x</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>BIND 9.2.x</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>MySQL</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>&java; 1.4.x</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="goals">
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<title>Requirements for 5-STABLE</title>
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<para>The &t.releng.5 branch must offer users the same stability and
|
|
performance that is currently enjoyed in the &t.releng.4 branch.
|
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While the goal of SMPng is to allow performance to far exceed what
|
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is found in &t.releng.4; and its sibling BSDs, regaining performance
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to the basic level is of the utmost importance. The branch must also
|
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be mature enough to avoid ABI and API changes while still allowing
|
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potential problems to be resolved.</para>
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<sect2 id="API">
|
|
<title>ABI/API/Infrastructure stability</title>
|
|
<para>Enough infrastructure must be in place and stable to allow
|
|
fixes from &t.releng.head; to easily and safely be merged into
|
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&t.releng.5;. Also, we must draw a line as to what subsystems are
|
|
to be locked down when we go into 5-STABLE.</para>
|
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|
|
<itemizedlist>
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|
<listitem>
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|
<para>KSE: Both kernel and userland components must
|
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reach the same level of functionality for all Tier-1 platforms,
|
|
in both UP and SMP configurations. The definition of <quote>Tier-1
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platforms</quote> can be found in
|
|
<ulink url="&url.articles.committers-guide;/archs.html"></ulink>.
|
|
Continued testing against the ACE test
|
|
suite must be made as the &t.releng.5; branch draws near. KSE
|
|
must pose no functional regressions for the ongoing &java;
|
|
certification program. Common desktop and server applications
|
|
must run seamlessly under KSE. A policy must be decided on as
|
|
to which platforms will enable KSE as the default threading
|
|
package, how to allow the user to switch threading packages, and
|
|
how third-party packages will be made aware of these choices.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
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|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>busdma interface and drivers: architectures like PAE/&i386; and
|
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sparc64 which do not have a direct mapping between host memory
|
|
address space and expansion bus address space require the
|
|
elimination of vtophys() and friends. The busdma interface was
|
|
created to handle exactly this problem, but many drivers do not use
|
|
it yet. The busdma project at
|
|
<ulink url="&url.base;/projects/busdma"></ulink>
|
|
tracks the
|
|
progress of this and should be used to determine which drivers
|
|
must be converted for &t.releng.5; and which can be left behind.
|
|
No new storage or network drivers shall be allowed into the
|
|
&os; source tree. Exceptions for other classes of drivers must
|
|
be justified in public discussion.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>PCI resource allocation: PC2003 compliance requires that x86
|
|
systems no longer configure PCI devices from the system BIOS,
|
|
leaving this task solely to the OS. &os; must gain the ability to
|
|
manage and allocate PCI memory resources on its own. Implementing
|
|
this should take into account cardbus, PCI-HotPlug, and laptop
|
|
docking-station requirements. This feature will become increasingly
|
|
critical through the lifetime of &t.releng.5;, and therefore is a
|
|
requirement for the &t.releng.5; branch.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
|
|
<sect2 id="performance">
|
|
<title>Performance</title>
|
|
<para>Performance hinges on the progress of SMPng infrastructure in
|
|
the following areas:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Storage: The GEOM block layer allows storage drivers to
|
|
run without Giant. All drivers that interface directly with
|
|
GEOM (as opposed to sitting underneath CAM or another middleware)
|
|
must be locked and free of Giant in both their strategy and
|
|
completion paths. Their interrupt handlers must also run free
|
|
of Giant.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Network: The layers in the IPv4 path below the socket layer
|
|
must be locked and free of Giant. This includes the protocol,
|
|
routing, bridging, filtering, and hardware layers. Allowances must
|
|
be made for protocols that are not locked, especially IPv6.
|
|
Testing must also be performed to ensure stability, correctness,
|
|
and performance.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Interrupt and context switching: As discussed above, interrupt
|
|
latency and context switching have a severe impact of performance.
|
|
Context switching for ithreads and kthreads must be improved.
|
|
New interrupt handling models that allow for faster and
|
|
more flexible handling of both traditional and MSI interrupts must
|
|
be investigated and implemented.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
|
|
<sect2 id="benchmarks">
|
|
<title>Benchmarks and performance testing</title>
|
|
<para>Having a source of reliable and useful benchmarks is essential
|
|
to identifying performance problems and guarding against performance
|
|
regressions. A <quote>performance team</quote> that is made up of
|
|
people and resources for formulating, developing, and executing
|
|
benchmark tests should be put into place soon. Comparisons should
|
|
be made against both &os; 4.<replaceable>X</replaceable> and Linux
|
|
2.4/2.6. Tests to consider are:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>the classic <quote>worldstone</quote></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>webstone: <filename role="package">www/webstone</filename></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Fstress: <ulink url="http://www.cs.duke.edu/ari/fstress/"></ulink></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>ApacheBench: <filename role="package">www/p5-ApacheBench</filename></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>netperf: <filename role="package">benchmarks/netperf</filename></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Web Polygraph: <ulink url="http://www.web-polygraph.org/"></ulink>
|
|
Note: does not compile with gcc 3.x yet.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
|
|
<sect2 id="features">
|
|
<title>Features:</title>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>NEWCARD/OLDCARD: The NEWCARD subsystem was made the default
|
|
for &os; 5.0. Unfortunately, it does not include support for
|
|
non-Cardbus bridges and falls victim to interrupt routing
|
|
problems on some laptops. The classic 16-bit bridge support,
|
|
OLDCARD, still exists and can be compiled in, but this is highly
|
|
inconvenient for users of older laptops. If OLDCARD cannot be
|
|
completely deprecated for &t.releng.5;, then provisions must be made
|
|
to allow users to easily install an OLDCARD-enabled kernel.
|
|
Documentation should be written to help transition users from
|
|
OLDCARD to NEWCARD and from &man.pccardd.8; to
|
|
&man.devd.8;. The power management and
|
|
<quote>dumpcis</quote> functionality of &man.pccardc.8; needs to be
|
|
brought forward to work with NEWCARD, along with the ability to
|
|
load CIS quirk entries. Most of this functionality can be
|
|
integrated into &man.devd.8; and
|
|
&man.devctl.4;.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>New scheduler framework: The new scheduler framework is in
|
|
place, and users can select between the classic 4BSD scheduler
|
|
and the new ULE scheduler. A scheduler that demonstrates
|
|
processor affinity, HyperThreading and KSE awareness, and no
|
|
regressions in performance or interactivity characteristics must
|
|
be available for &t.releng.5;.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>GDB: GDB in the base system must work for sparc64, and
|
|
must also understand KSE thread semantics. GDB 5.3 is available
|
|
and is reported to address the sparc64 issues.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
|
|
<sect2 id="documentation">
|
|
<title>Documentation:</title>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The manual pages, Handbook, and FAQ should be free from
|
|
content specific to &os; 4.<replaceable>X</replaceable>, i.e. all
|
|
text should be equally applicable to &os;
|
|
5.<replaceable>X</replaceable>. The installation section of the
|
|
handbook needs the most work in this area.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The release documentation needs to be complete and accurate
|
|
for all Tier-1 architectures. The hardware notes and
|
|
installation guides need specific attention.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="future">
|
|
<title>Post &t.releng.5; direction</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>The focus should be bug fixes and incremental improvements, as with
|
|
all the -STABLE development branches. Following the usual procedure,
|
|
everything should be vetted through the &t.releng.head; branch first and
|
|
committed to &t.releng.5; with caution. New device drivers, incremental
|
|
features, etc, will be welcome in the branch once they have been tested
|
|
in &t.releng.head; and found stable enough.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Further SMPng lockdowns will be divided into two categories: driver
|
|
and subsystem. The only subsystem that will be sufficiently locked
|
|
down for &t.releng.5; will be GEOM, so incrementally locking down device
|
|
drivers under it is a worthy goal for the branch. Full subsystem
|
|
lockdowns will have to be fully tested and proven in &t.releng.head; before
|
|
consideration will be given to merging them into &t.releng.5;.</para>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
</article>
|