[RFC v3] net/af_packet: make stats reset reliable

[Ferruh Yigit]

On 5/7/2024 4:27 PM, Morten Brørup wrote:
>> From: Ferruh Yigit [mailto:ferruh.yigit at amd.com]
>> Sent: Friday, 3 May 2024 17.46
>>
>> For stats reset, use an offset instead of zeroing out actual stats values,
>> get_stats() displays diff between stats and offset.
>> This way stats only updated in datapath and offset only updated in stats
>> reset function. This makes stats reset function more reliable.
>>
>> As stats only written by single thread, we can remove 'volatile' qualifier
>> which should improve the performance in datapath.
>>
>> While updating around, 'igb_stats' parameter renamed as 'stats'.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit at amd.com>
>> ---
>> Cc: Mattias Rönnblom <mattias.ronnblom at ericsson.com>
>> Cc: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>
>> Cc: Morten Brørup <mb at smartsharesystems.com>
>>
>> This update triggered by mail list discussion [1].
>>
>> [1]
>> https://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/3b2cf48e-2293-4226-b6cd-
>> 5f4dd3969f99 at lysator.liu.se/
>>
>> v2:
>> * Remove wrapping check for stats
>>
>> v3:
>> * counter and offset put into same struct per stats
>> * Use atomic load / store for stats values
>> ---
> 
> Note: My comments below relate to software PMDs only.
> 
> Design for the following invariants:
> 1. "counter" may increase at any time. (So stopping forwarding is not required.)
>

Mattias mentioned a case [1] that may end up 'offset > count', for being
safe side we may start with restriction.

[1]
https://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/20240425174617.2126159-1-ferruh.yigit@amd.com/T/#m29cd179228c164181d2bb7dea716dee6e91ab169

> 2. "counter" may not decrease.
> 3. "offset" is always <= "counter".
> 
> So:
> 
> Stats_get() must read "offset" before "counter"; if "counter" races to increase in the mean time, it doesn't hurt. Stats_get() is a relatively "cold" function, so barriers etc. are acceptable.
> 
> Assuming that stats_add() lazy-writes "counter"; if stats_get() reads an old value, its result will be slightly off, but not negative.
> 
> Similarly for stats_reset(), which obviously reads "counter" before writing "offset"; if "counter" races to increase in the mean time, the too low "offset" will not cause negative stats from stats_get().
> 

ack on above items.

> 
> And a requested change for performance:
> 
>> +struct stats {
>> +	uint64_t counter;
>> +	uint64_t offset;
>> +};
> 
> The "offset" is cold.
> Stats_add(), which is the only hot function, only touches "counter".
> 
> Instead of having a struct with {counter, offset}, I strongly prefer having them separate.
> E.g. as a struct defining the set of statistics (e.g. pkts, bytes, errors), instantiated once for the counters (in a hot zone of the device data structure) and once for the offsets (in a cold zone of the device data structure).
> There could be variants of this "set of statistics" struct, e.g. one for RX and a different one for TX. (Each variant would be instantiated twice, once for counters, and once for offsets.)
> 

Although having them together was logical, good point from performance
perspective, let me work on it.