[PATCH net-next v7 9/9] tun/tap & vhost-net: avoid ptr_ring tail-drop when qdisc is present
From: Simon Schippers <hidden>
Date: 2026-01-07 21:06:17
Also in:
kvm, lkml, virtualization
Subsystem:
networking drivers, the rest, tun/tap driver · Maintainers:
Andrew Lunn, "David S. Miller", Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni, Linus Torvalds, Willem de Bruijn, Jason Wang
This commit prevents tail-drop when a qdisc is present and the ptr_ring
becomes full. Once an entry is successfully produced and the ptr_ring
reaches capacity, the netdev queue is stopped instead of dropping
subsequent packets.
If producing an entry fails anyways, the tun_net_xmit returns
NETDEV_TX_BUSY, again avoiding a drop. Such failures are expected because
LLTX is enabled and the transmit path operates without the usual locking.
As a result, concurrent calls to tun_net_xmit() are not prevented.
The existing __{tun,tap}_ring_consume functions free space in the
ptr_ring and wake the netdev queue. Races between this wakeup and the
queue-stop logic could leave the queue stopped indefinitely. To prevent
this, a memory barrier is enforced (as discussed in a similar
implementation in [1]), followed by a recheck that wakes the queue if
space is already available.
If no qdisc is present, the previous tail-drop behavior is preserved.
+-------------------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
| pktgen benchmarks to | Stock | Patched with | Patched with |
| Debian VM, i5 6300HQ, | | noqueue qdisc | fq_codel qdisc |
| 10M packets | | | |
+-----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
| TAP | Transmitted | 196 Kpps | 195 Kpps | 185 Kpps |
| +-------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
| | Lost | 1618 Kpps | 1556 Kpps | 0 |
+-----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
| TAP | Transmitted | 577 Kpps | 582 Kpps | 578 Kpps |
| + +-------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
| vhost-net | Lost | 1170 Kpps | 1109 Kpps | 0 |
+-----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+----------------+
[1] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250424085358.75d817ae@kernel.org/ (local)
Co-developed-by: Tim Gebauer <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Tim Gebauer <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Simon Schippers <redacted>
---
drivers/net/tun.c | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
index 71b6981d07d7..74d7fd09e9ba 100644
--- a/drivers/net/tun.c
+++ b/drivers/net/tun.c@@ -1008,6 +1008,8 @@ static netdev_tx_t tun_net_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev) struct netdev_queue *queue; struct tun_file *tfile; int len = skb->len; + bool qdisc_present; + int ret; rcu_read_lock(); tfile = rcu_dereference(tun->tfiles[txq]);
@@ -1060,13 +1062,38 @@ static netdev_tx_t tun_net_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev) nf_reset_ct(skb); - if (ptr_ring_produce(&tfile->tx_ring, skb)) { + queue = netdev_get_tx_queue(dev, txq); + qdisc_present = !qdisc_txq_has_no_queue(queue); + + spin_lock(&tfile->tx_ring.producer_lock); + ret = __ptr_ring_produce(&tfile->tx_ring, skb); + if (__ptr_ring_produce_peek(&tfile->tx_ring) && qdisc_present) { + netif_tx_stop_queue(queue); + /* Avoid races with queue wake-up in + * __{tun,tap}_ring_consume by waking if space is + * available in a re-check. + * The barrier makes sure that the stop is visible before + * we re-check. + */ + smp_mb__after_atomic(); + if (!__ptr_ring_produce_peek(&tfile->tx_ring)) + netif_tx_wake_queue(queue); + } + spin_unlock(&tfile->tx_ring.producer_lock); + + if (ret) { + /* If a qdisc is attached to our virtual device, + * returning NETDEV_TX_BUSY is allowed. + */ + if (qdisc_present) { + rcu_read_unlock(); + return NETDEV_TX_BUSY; + } drop_reason = SKB_DROP_REASON_FULL_RING; goto drop; } /* dev->lltx requires to do our own update of trans_start */ - queue = netdev_get_tx_queue(dev, txq); txq_trans_cond_update(queue); /* Notify and wake up reader process */
--
2.43.0