[PATCH v5] mbuf: optimize segment prefree

Morten Brørup mb at smartsharesystems.com
Thu Oct 23 10:01:36 CEST 2025


Refactored rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg() for both performance and readability.

With the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro, the common likely code path
now fits within one instruction cache line on x86-64 when built with GCC.

Signed-off-by: Morten Brørup <mb at smartsharesystems.com>
Acked-by: Konstantin Ananyev <konstantin.ananyev at huawei.com>
Acked-by: Chengwen Feng <fengchengwen at huawei.com>
Reviewed-by: Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson at intel.com>
---
v5:
* Removed the plain RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro, and only use the optimized
  variant. (Bruce Richardson)
  Further testing on Godbolt confirmed that other compilers benefit from
  the optimized macro too.
* Shortened the description of the RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro, and only
  provide one example of code emitted by a compiler. (Bruce Richardson)
* Consolidated the static_assert() into one, covering both little and big
  endian.
  This also reduces the amount of endian-conditional source code and
  improves readability.
  (Bruce Richardson)
* Added comment about MSB meaning "most significant byte".
v4:
* Enabled the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro for GCC on all
  architectures.
v3:
* Rewrote the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro for readability; use
  numerical value instead of long names. (Bruce Richardson)
* Enabled the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro for Loongarch too.
v2:
* Fixed typo in commit description.
* Fixed indentation.
* Added detailed description to the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT() macro.
  (Stephen Hemminger)
* Added static_assert() to verify that the optimized RTE_MBUF_DIRECT()
  macro is valid, specifically that the tested bits are in the MSB of the
  64-bit field.
---
 lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf.h      | 51 +++++++++++++++-------------------------
 lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf_core.h | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf.h b/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf.h
index 3df22125de..2004391f57 100644
--- a/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf.h
+++ b/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf.h
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
  * http://www.kohala.com/start/tcpipiv2.html
  */
 
+#include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
 
 #include <rte_common.h>
@@ -1458,44 +1459,30 @@ static inline int __rte_pktmbuf_pinned_extbuf_decref(struct rte_mbuf *m)
 static __rte_always_inline struct rte_mbuf *
 rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg(struct rte_mbuf *m)
 {
-	__rte_mbuf_sanity_check(m, 0);
-
-	if (likely(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(m) == 1)) {
-
-		if (!RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(m)) {
-			rte_pktmbuf_detach(m);
-			if (RTE_MBUF_HAS_EXTBUF(m) &&
-			    RTE_MBUF_HAS_PINNED_EXTBUF(m) &&
-			    __rte_pktmbuf_pinned_extbuf_decref(m))
-				return NULL;
-		}
-
-		if (m->next != NULL)
-			m->next = NULL;
-		if (m->nb_segs != 1)
-			m->nb_segs = 1;
+	bool refcnt_not_one;
 
-		return m;
+	__rte_mbuf_sanity_check(m, 0);
 
-	} else if (__rte_mbuf_refcnt_update(m, -1) == 0) {
+	refcnt_not_one = unlikely(rte_mbuf_refcnt_read(m) != 1);
+	if (refcnt_not_one && __rte_mbuf_refcnt_update(m, -1) != 0)
+		return NULL;
 
-		if (!RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(m)) {
-			rte_pktmbuf_detach(m);
-			if (RTE_MBUF_HAS_EXTBUF(m) &&
-			    RTE_MBUF_HAS_PINNED_EXTBUF(m) &&
-			    __rte_pktmbuf_pinned_extbuf_decref(m))
-				return NULL;
-		}
+	if (unlikely(!RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(m))) {
+		rte_pktmbuf_detach(m);
+		if (RTE_MBUF_HAS_EXTBUF(m) &&
+				RTE_MBUF_HAS_PINNED_EXTBUF(m) &&
+				__rte_pktmbuf_pinned_extbuf_decref(m))
+			return NULL;
+	}
 
-		if (m->next != NULL)
-			m->next = NULL;
-		if (m->nb_segs != 1)
-			m->nb_segs = 1;
+	if (refcnt_not_one)
 		rte_mbuf_refcnt_set(m, 1);
+	if (m->nb_segs != 1)
+		m->nb_segs = 1;
+	if (m->next != NULL)
+		m->next = NULL;
 
-		return m;
-	}
-	return NULL;
+	return m;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf_core.h b/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf_core.h
index a0df265b5d..1dfeab0511 100644
--- a/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf_core.h
+++ b/lib/mbuf/rte_mbuf_core.h
@@ -711,9 +711,36 @@ struct rte_mbuf_ext_shared_info {
  *
  * If a mbuf embeds its own data after the rte_mbuf structure, this mbuf
  * can be defined as a direct mbuf.
- */
-#define RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(mb) \
-	(!((mb)->ol_flags & (RTE_MBUF_F_INDIRECT | RTE_MBUF_F_EXTERNAL)))
+ *
+ * Note: Macro optimized for code size.
+ *
+ * The plain macro would be:
+ *      #define RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(mb) \
+ *          (!((mb)->ol_flags & (RTE_MBUF_F_INDIRECT | RTE_MBUF_F_EXTERNAL)))
+ *
+ * The flags RTE_MBUF_F_INDIRECT and RTE_MBUF_F_EXTERNAL are both in the MSB (most significant
+ * byte) of the 64-bit ol_flags field, so we only compare this one byte instead of all 64 bits.
+ *
+ * E.g., GCC version 16.0.0 20251019 (experimental) generates the following code for x86-64.
+ *
+ * With the plain macro, 17 bytes of instructions:
+ *      movabs rax,0x6000000000000000       // 10 bytes
+ *      and    rax,QWORD PTR [rdi+0x18]     // 4 bytes
+ *      sete   al                           // 3 bytes
+ * With this optimized macro, only 7 bytes of instructions:
+ *      test   BYTE PTR [rdi+0x1f],0x60     // 4 bytes
+ *      sete   al                           // 3 bytes
+ */
+#if RTE_BYTE_ORDER == RTE_LITTLE_ENDIAN
+/* On little endian architecture, the MSB of a 64-bit integer is at byte offset 7. */
+#define RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(mb)     !(((const char *)(&(mb)->ol_flags))[7] & 0x60)
+#elif RTE_BYTE_ORDER == RTE_BIG_ENDIAN
+/* On big endian architecture, the MSB of a 64-bit integer is at byte offset 0. */
+#define RTE_MBUF_DIRECT(mb)     !(((const char *)(&(mb)->ol_flags))[0] & 0x60)
+#endif
+/* Verify the optimization above. */
+static_assert((RTE_MBUF_F_INDIRECT | RTE_MBUF_F_EXTERNAL) == UINT64_C(0x60) << (7 * CHAR_BIT),
+	"(RTE_MBUF_F_INDIRECT | RTE_MBUF_F_EXTERNAL) is not 0x60 at MSB");
 
 /** Uninitialized or unspecified port. */
 #define RTE_MBUF_PORT_INVALID UINT16_MAX
-- 
2.43.0



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