Per-CPU variables are one of the kernel features. You can understand the meaning of this feature by reading its name. We can create a variable and each processor core will have its own copy of this variable. In this part, we take a closer look at this feature and try to understand how it is implemented and how it works.
This macro defined in the [include/linux/percpu-defs.h](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/linux/percpu-defs.h) as many other macros for work with per-cpu variables. Now we will see how this feature is implemented.
Take a look at the `DECLARE_PER_CPU` definition. We see that it takes 2 parameters: `type` and `name`, so we can use it to create per-cpu variables, for example like this:
We pass the type and the name of our variable. `DEFINE_PER_CPU` calls the `DEFINE_PER_CPU_SECTION` macro and passes the same two parameters and empty string to it. Let's look at the definition of the `DEFINE_PER_CPU_SECTION`:
Ok, now we know that when we use the `DEFINE_PER_CPU` macro, a per-cpu variable in the `.data..percpu` section will be created. When the kernel initializes it calls the `setup_per_cpu_areas` function which loads the `.data..percpu` section multiple times, one section per CPU.
Let's look at the per-CPU areas initialization process. It starts in the [init/main.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/init/main.c) from the call of the `setup_per_cpu_areas` function which is defined in the [arch/x86/kernel/setup_percpu.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/x86/kernel/setup_percpu.c).
The `setup_per_cpu_areas` starts from the output information about the maximum number of CPUs set during kernel configuration with the `CONFIG_NR_CPUS` configuration option, actual number of CPUs, `nr_cpumask_bits` is the same that `NR_CPUS` bit for the new `cpumask` operators and number of `NUMA` nodes.
In the next step we check the `percpu` first chunk allocator. All percpu areas are allocated in chunks. The first chunk is used for the static percpu variables. The Linux kernel has `percpu_alloc` command line parameters which provides the type of the first chunk allocator. We can read about it in the kernel documentation:
Where the `percpu_alloc_setup` function sets the `pcpu_chosen_fc` variable depends on the `percpu_alloc` parameter value. By default the first chunk allocator is `auto`:
If the `percpu_alloc` parameter is not given to the kernel command line, the `embed` allocator will be used which embeds the first percpu chunk into bootmem with the [memblock](http://0xax.gitbooks.io/linux-insides/content/mm/linux-mm-1.html). The last allocator is the first chunk `page` allocator which maps the first chunk with `PAGE_SIZE` pages.
As I wrote above, first of all we make a check of the first chunk allocator type in the `setup_per_cpu_areas`. We check that first chunk allocator is not page:
As shown above, the `pcpu_embed_first_chunk` function embeds the first percpu chunk into bootmem then we pass a couple of parameters to the `pcup_embed_first_chunk`. They are as follows:
If the first chunk allocator is `PCPU_FC_PAGE`, we will use the `pcpu_page_first_chunk` instead of the `pcpu_embed_first_chunk`. After that `percpu` areas up, we setup `percpu` offset and its segment for every CPU with the `setup_percpu_segment` function (only for `x86` systems) and move some early data from the arrays to the `percpu` variables (`x86_cpu_to_apicid`, `irq_stack_ptr` and etc...). After the kernel finishes the initialization process, we will have loaded N `.data..percpu` sections, where N is the number of CPUs, and the section used by the bootstrap processor will contain an uninitialized variable created with the `DEFINE_PER_CPU` macro.
The Linux kernel is preemptible and accessing a per-cpu variable requires us to know which processor the kernel is running on. So, current code must not be preempted and moved to the another CPU while accessing a per-cpu variable. That's why, first of all we can see a call of the `preempt_disable` function then a call of the `this_cpu_ptr` macro, which looks like:
where `per_cpu_ptr` returns a pointer to the per-cpu variable for the given cpu (second parameter). After we've created a per-cpu variable and made modifications to it, we must call the `put_cpu_var` macro which enables preemption with a call of `preempt_enable` function. So the typical usage of a per-cpu variable is as follows:
After this we can see the call of the `SHIFT_PERCPU_PTR` macro with two parameters. As first parameter we pass our ptr and for second parameter we pass the cpu number to the `per_cpu_offset` macro:
where `NR_CPUS` is the number of CPUs. The `__per_cpu_offset` array is filled with the distances between cpu-variable copies. For example all per-cpu data is `X` bytes in size, so if we access `__per_cpu_offset[Y]`, `X*Y` will be accessed. Let's look at the `SHIFT_PERCPU_PTR` implementation:
That's all! Of course it is not the full API, but a general overview. It can be hard to start with, but to understand per-cpu variables you mainly need to understand the [include/linux/percpu-defs.h](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/linux/percpu-defs.h) magic.
* When the `per_cpu_ptr` is called, for example for getting a pointer on a certain per-cpu variable for the third CPU, the `__per_cpu_offset` array will be accessed, where every index points to the required CPU.
