git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

[PATCH 5/5] pack-objects: Use new worker pool

From
Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Date
Aug 25, 2015, 17:28 UTC
Message-ID
<1440523706-23041-6-git-send-email-sbeller@google.com>
In-Reply-To
<1440523706-23041-1-git-send-email-sbeller@google.com>

Before we had <n> threads doing the delta finding work, and the main thread was load balancing the threads, i.e. moving work from a thread with a large amount left to an idle thread whenever such a situation arose.

This moves the load balancing to the threads themselves. As soon as one thread is done working it will look at its peer threads and will pickup half the work load from the thread with the largest pending load.

By having the load balancing as part of the threads, the locking and communication model becomes easier, such that we don't need so many mutexes any more. It also demonstrates the usage of the new threading pool being useful.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
---
 builtin/pack-objects.c | 175 ++++++++++++++++---------------------------------
 1 file changed, 57 insertions(+), 118 deletions(-)
diff --git a/builtin/pack-objects.c b/builtin/pack-objects.c
index 62cc16d..f46d2df 100644
--- a/builtin/pack-objects.c
+++ b/builtin/pack-objects.c
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include "pack-objects.h"
 #include "progress.h"
 #include "refs.h"
+#include "run-command.h"
 #include "streaming.h"
 #include "thread-utils.h"
 #include "pack-bitmap.h"
@@ -1887,26 +1888,12 @@ static void try_to_free_from_threads(size_t size)
 
 static try_to_free_t old_try_to_free_routine;
 
-/*
- * The main thread waits on the condition that (at least) one of the workers
- * has stopped working (which is indicated in the .working member of
- * struct thread_params).
- * When a work thread has completed its work, it sets .working to 0 and
- * signals the main thread and waits on the condition that .data_ready
- * becomes 1.
- */
-
 struct thread_params {
-	pthread_t thread;
 	struct object_entry **list;
 	unsigned list_size;
 	unsigned remaining;
 	int window;
 	int depth;
-	int working;
-	int data_ready;
-	pthread_mutex_t mutex;
-	pthread_cond_t cond;
 	unsigned *processed;
 };
 
@@ -1933,7 +1920,52 @@ static void cleanup_threaded_search(void)
 	pthread_mutex_destroy(&progress_mutex);
 }
 
-static void *threaded_find_deltas(void *arg)
+static struct thread_params *p;
+
+static void threaded_split_largest_workload(struct thread_params *target)
+{
+	int i;
+
+	struct object_entry **list;
+	struct thread_params *victim = NULL;
+	unsigned sub_size = 0;
+
+	/* Find a victim */
+	progress_lock();
+	for (i = 0; i < delta_search_threads; i++)
+		if (p[i].remaining > 2*window &&
+		    (!victim || victim->remaining < p[i].remaining))
+			victim = &p[i];
+
+	if (victim) {
+		sub_size = victim->remaining / 2;
+		list = victim->list + victim->list_size - sub_size;
+		while (sub_size && list[0]->hash &&
+		       list[0]->hash == list[-1]->hash) {
+			list++;
+			sub_size--;
+		}
+		if (!sub_size) {
+			/*
+			 * It is possible for some "paths" to have
+			 * so many objects that no hash boundary
+			 * might be found.  Let's just steal the
+			 * exact half in that case.
+			 */
+			sub_size = victim->remaining / 2;
+			list -= sub_size;
+		}
+		victim->list_size -= sub_size;
+		victim->remaining -= sub_size;
+
+		target->list = list;
+		target->list_size = sub_size;
+		target->remaining = sub_size;
+	}
+	progress_unlock();
+}
+
+static int threaded_find_deltas(struct task_queue *tq, void *arg)
 {
 	struct thread_params *me = arg;
 
@@ -1941,34 +1973,17 @@ static void *threaded_find_deltas(void *arg)
 		find_deltas(me->list, &me->remaining,
 			    me->window, me->depth, me->processed);
 
-		progress_lock();
-		me->working = 0;
-		pthread_cond_signal(&progress_cond);
-		progress_unlock();
-
-		/*
-		 * We must not set ->data_ready before we wait on the
-		 * condition because the main thread may have set it to 1
-		 * before we get here. In order to be sure that new
-		 * work is available if we see 1 in ->data_ready, it
-		 * was initialized to 0 before this thread was spawned
-		 * and we reset it to 0 right away.
-		 */
-		pthread_mutex_lock(&me->mutex);
-		while (!me->data_ready)
-			pthread_cond_wait(&me->cond, &me->mutex);
-		me->data_ready = 0;
-		pthread_mutex_unlock(&me->mutex);
+		threaded_split_largest_workload(me);
 	}
-	/* leave ->working 1 so that this doesn't get more work assigned */
-	return NULL;
+
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static void ll_find_deltas(struct object_entry **list, unsigned list_size,
 			   int window, int depth, unsigned *processed)
 {
-	struct thread_params *p;
-	int i, ret, active_threads = 0;
+	struct task_queue *tq;
+	int i;
 
 	init_threaded_search();
 
@@ -1980,8 +1995,11 @@ static void ll_find_deltas(struct object_entry **list, unsigned list_size,
 	if (progress > pack_to_stdout)
 		fprintf(stderr, "Delta compression using up to %d threads.\n",
 				delta_search_threads);
+
 	p = xcalloc(delta_search_threads, sizeof(*p));
 
+	tq = create_task_queue(delta_search_threads);
+
 	/* Partition the work amongst work threads. */
 	for (i = 0; i < delta_search_threads; i++) {
 		unsigned sub_size = list_size / (delta_search_threads - i);
@@ -1993,8 +2011,6 @@ static void ll_find_deltas(struct object_entry **list, unsigned list_size,
 		p[i].window = window;
 		p[i].depth = depth;
 		p[i].processed = processed;
-		p[i].working = 1;
-		p[i].data_ready = 0;
 
 		/* try to split chunks on "path" boundaries */
 		while (sub_size && sub_size < list_size &&
@@ -2008,87 +2024,10 @@ static void ll_find_deltas(struct object_entry **list, unsigned list_size,
 
 		list += sub_size;
 		list_size -= sub_size;
+		add_task(tq, threaded_find_deltas, &p[i]);
 	}
 
-	/* Start work threads. */
-	for (i = 0; i < delta_search_threads; i++) {
-		if (!p[i].list_size)
-			continue;
-		pthread_mutex_init(&p[i].mutex, NULL);
-		pthread_cond_init(&p[i].cond, NULL);
-		ret = pthread_create(&p[i].thread, NULL,
-				     threaded_find_deltas, &p[i]);
-		if (ret)
-			die("unable to create thread: %s", strerror(ret));
-		active_threads++;
-	}
-
-	/*
-	 * Now let's wait for work completion.  Each time a thread is done
-	 * with its work, we steal half of the remaining work from the
-	 * thread with the largest number of unprocessed objects and give
-	 * it to that newly idle thread.  This ensure good load balancing
-	 * until the remaining object list segments are simply too short
-	 * to be worth splitting anymore.
-	 */
-	while (active_threads) {
-		struct thread_params *target = NULL;
-		struct thread_params *victim = NULL;
-		unsigned sub_size = 0;
-
-		progress_lock();
-		for (;;) {
-			for (i = 0; !target && i < delta_search_threads; i++)
-				if (!p[i].working)
-					target = &p[i];
-			if (target)
-				break;
-			pthread_cond_wait(&progress_cond, &progress_mutex);
-		}
-
-		for (i = 0; i < delta_search_threads; i++)
-			if (p[i].remaining > 2*window &&
-			    (!victim || victim->remaining < p[i].remaining))
-				victim = &p[i];
-		if (victim) {
-			sub_size = victim->remaining / 2;
-			list = victim->list + victim->list_size - sub_size;
-			while (sub_size && list[0]->hash &&
-			       list[0]->hash == list[-1]->hash) {
-				list++;
-				sub_size--;
-			}
-			if (!sub_size) {
-				/*
-				 * It is possible for some "paths" to have
-				 * so many objects that no hash boundary
-				 * might be found.  Let's just steal the
-				 * exact half in that case.
-				 */
-				sub_size = victim->remaining / 2;
-				list -= sub_size;
-			}
-			target->list = list;
-			victim->list_size -= sub_size;
-			victim->remaining -= sub_size;
-		}
-		target->list_size = sub_size;
-		target->remaining = sub_size;
-		target->working = 1;
-		progress_unlock();
-
-		pthread_mutex_lock(&target->mutex);
-		target->data_ready = 1;
-		pthread_cond_signal(&target->cond);
-		pthread_mutex_unlock(&target->mutex);
-
-		if (!sub_size) {
-			pthread_join(target->thread, NULL);
-			pthread_cond_destroy(&target->cond);
-			pthread_mutex_destroy(&target->mutex);
-			active_threads--;
-		}
-	}
+	finish_task_queue(tq, NULL);
 	cleanup_threaded_search();
 	free(p);
 }
-- 
2.5.0.400.gff86faf
Previous: Junio C Hamano
Message 19 of 19 in “Demonstrate new parallel threading API”
  1. 0/5 Demonstrate new parallel threading APIStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015
  2. 1/5 FIXUP submodule: implement `module_clone` as a builtin helperStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015
  3. 2/5 thread-utils: add a threaded task queueStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015
  4. 3/5 submodule: helper to run foreach in parallelStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015
  5. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  6. Stefan BellerAug 25, 2015
  7. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  8. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  9. Jeff KingAug 26, 2015
  10. Stefan BellerAug 26, 2015
  11. 4/5 index-pack: Use the new worker poolStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015
  12. Jeff KingAug 25, 2015
  13. Stefan BellerAug 25, 2015
  14. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  15. Stefan BellerAug 25, 2015
  16. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  17. Stefan BellerAug 25, 2015
  18. Junio C HamanoAug 25, 2015
  19. 5/5 pack-objects: Use new worker poolStefan Beller, Aug 25, 2015

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.