[PATCH] sched/proxy: allow SCHED_PROXY_EXEC with PREEMPT_RT

From: Quchaosheng

Date: Mon Sep 21 2026 - 04:22:19 EST


CONFIG_SCHED_PROXY_EXEC could not be enabled together with
CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT. The Kconfig entry carried a "depends on !PREEMPT_RT"
with the comment "Avoid some build failures w/ PREEMPT_RT until it can be
fixed", and the failures are real: building kernel/sched/core.c with both
options set gives:

kernel/sched/core.c:6927: error: passing argument 2 of 'clear_task_blocked_on' from incompatible pointer type
kernel/sched/core.c:6939: error: 'struct mutex' has no member named 'wait_lock'
kernel/sched/core.c:6943: error: implicit declaration of function '__get_task_blocked_on'
kernel/sched/core.c:6956: error: implicit declaration of function '__mutex_owner'

The proxy execution machinery tracks a task's blocked-on mutex through
task_struct::blocked_on and walks that chain in find_proxy_task(). It was
written against the native struct mutex, which embeds wait_lock directly
and keeps the owner in atomic_long_t owner.

On PREEMPT_RT, struct mutex is instead a wrapper around struct rt_mutex,
so both live in the embedded rt_mutex_base: wait_lock is
rtmutex.wait_lock and the owner is reachable via rt_mutex_owner(). On top
of that, the RT variants of the blocked_on accessors were stubbed out with
a struct rt_mutex * parameter, so find_proxy_task() could not even compile.

The set of errors has two independent causes, addressed separately:

1. Header type mismatch. The PREEMPT_RT branch of the blocked_on helpers
was declared with "struct rt_mutex *" while every caller passes a
"struct mutex *". That parameter type came from __ww_mutex_die() and
__ww_mutex_wound() in ww_mutex.h, which are shared with the WW_RT
instantiation where the MUTEX macro expands to struct rt_mutex. Those
two call sites are now compiled out for WW_RT, making the helpers
consistently take a "struct mutex *". This is not a behavioural change
for WW_RT: the blocked_on relation is only maintained for native
mutexes, and an rt_mutex based lock relies on the rtmutex priority
inheritance chain instead.

2. Data structure access. Add mutex_wait_lock(), which returns the
wait_lock of either mutex implementation, and provide a
PREEMPT_RT __mutex_owner() that reads rt_mutex_base::owner, so that
find_proxy_task() works on both.

With that, the Kconfig restriction can be dropped.

Note that this makes the combination build and boot; it does not make
proxy execution actually do anything useful on PREEMPT_RT. An rt_mutex
already provides priority inheritance, so there is no blocked_on chain to
follow and proxy execution stays inactive. Replacing rt_mutexes in the RT
mutex implementation is tracked as future work in the proxy execution
series.

Verified with a full x86_64 build plus a QEMU boot of the resulting
SMP PREEMPT_RT kernel, both with and without CONFIG_SCHED_PROXY_EXEC and
with PROVE_LOCKING, DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP and DEBUG_PREEMPT enabled. The
kernel boots clean and an 8-thread SCHED_FIFO pthread mutex stress loop
runs without any BUG or WARNING.

Signed-off-by: Quchaosheng <quchaosheng000406@xxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/sched.h | 11 -----------
init/Kconfig | 6 ++++--
kernel/locking/mutex.h | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
kernel/locking/ww_mutex.h | 24 ++++++++++++++++--------
kernel/sched/core.c | 2 +-
5 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/sched.h b/include/linux/sched.h
index 705970d07614..334935d0ab55 100644
--- a/include/linux/sched.h
+++ b/include/linux/sched.h
@@ -2216,8 +2216,6 @@ extern int __cond_resched_rwlock_write(rwlock_t *lock) __must_hold(lock);
__cond_resched_rwlock_write(lock); \
})

-#ifndef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
-
static inline struct mutex *__get_task_blocked_on(struct task_struct *p)
{
lockdep_assert_held_once(&p->blocked_lock);
@@ -2258,15 +2256,6 @@ static inline void clear_task_blocked_on(struct task_struct *p, struct mutex *m)
guard(raw_spinlock_irqsave)(&p->blocked_lock);
__clear_task_blocked_on(p, m);
}
-#else
-static inline void __clear_task_blocked_on(struct task_struct *p, struct rt_mutex *m)
-{
-}
-
-static inline void clear_task_blocked_on(struct task_struct *p, struct rt_mutex *m)
-{
-}
-#endif /* !CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT */

static __always_inline bool need_resched(void)
{
diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig
index 8583d9f06c52..c4fca7951658 100644
--- a/init/Kconfig
+++ b/init/Kconfig
@@ -936,8 +936,6 @@ config UCLAMP_BUCKETS_COUNT

config SCHED_PROXY_EXEC
bool "Proxy Execution"
- # Avoid some build failures w/ PREEMPT_RT until it can be fixed
- depends on !PREEMPT_RT
# Need to investigate how to inform sched_ext of split contexts
depends on !SCHED_CLASS_EXT
# Not particularly useful until we get to multi-rq proxying
@@ -946,6 +944,10 @@ config SCHED_PROXY_EXEC
This option enables proxy execution, a mechanism for mutex-owning
tasks to inherit the scheduling context of higher priority waiters.

+ On PREEMPT_RT the mutex implementation already provides priority
+ inheritance via rt_mutex, so proxy execution has no blocked_on
+ chains to follow and the feature is effectively inactive there.
+
endmenu

#
diff --git a/kernel/locking/mutex.h b/kernel/locking/mutex.h
index 3e263e98e5fc..4e8b26840669 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/mutex.h
+++ b/kernel/locking/mutex.h
@@ -6,8 +6,25 @@
*
* Copyright (C) 2004, 2005, 2006 Red Hat, Inc., Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
*/
-#ifndef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
#include <linux/mutex.h>
+
+/*
+ * Where a mutex keeps its wait_lock differs between the two mutex
+ * implementations: native mutexes embed it directly, while PREEMPT_RT mutexes
+ * wrap an rt_mutex and keep it in rt_mutex_base. Provide a common accessor for
+ * the scheduler's proxy-execution code, which takes this lock to pin down a
+ * mutex owner.
+ */
+static inline raw_spinlock_t *mutex_wait_lock(struct mutex *lock)
+{
+#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
+ return &lock->rtmutex.wait_lock;
+#else
+ return &lock->wait_lock;
+#endif
+}
+
+#ifndef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
/*
* This is the control structure for tasks blocked on mutex, which resides
* on the blocked task's kernel stack:
@@ -76,4 +93,19 @@ extern void debug_mutex_init(struct mutex *lock);
# define debug_mutex_unlock(lock) do { } while (0)
# define debug_mutex_init(lock) do { } while (0)
#endif /* !CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES */
-#endif /* CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT */
+
+#else /* CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT */
+
+/*
+ * On PREEMPT_RT a mutex is an rt_mutex, which keeps track of its owner in
+ * rt_mutex_base::owner. Expose it through the same helper the native mutex
+ * path uses so that the proxy-execution scheduler code builds for both.
+ */
+static inline struct task_struct *__mutex_owner(struct mutex *lock)
+{
+ if (!lock)
+ return NULL;
+ return rt_mutex_owner(&lock->rtmutex);
+}
+
+#endif /* !CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT */
diff --git a/kernel/locking/ww_mutex.h b/kernel/locking/ww_mutex.h
index d62b49b53ec3..5cb65daf1c88 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/ww_mutex.h
+++ b/kernel/locking/ww_mutex.h
@@ -323,8 +323,14 @@ __ww_mutex_die(struct MUTEX *lock, struct MUTEX_WAITER *waiter,
* When waking up the task to die, be sure to set the
* blocked_on to PROXY_WAKING. Otherwise we can see
* circular blocked_on relationships that can't resolve.
+ *
+ * The blocked_on relation is only maintained for native
+ * mutexes; on PREEMPT_RT an rt_mutex based lock relies on
+ * priority inheritance instead.
*/
+#ifndef WW_RT
clear_task_blocked_on(waiter->task, lock);
+#endif
wake_q_add(wake_q, waiter->task);
}

@@ -375,15 +381,17 @@ static bool __ww_mutex_wound(struct MUTEX *lock,
*/
if (owner != current) {
/*
- * When waking up the task to wound, be sure to set the
- * blocked_on to PROXY_WAKING. Otherwise we can see
- * circular blocked_on relationships that can't resolve.
- *
- * NOTE: We pass NULL here instead of lock, because we
- * are waking the mutex owner, who may be currently
- * blocked on a different mutex.
- */
+ * When waking up the task to wound, be sure to set the
+ * blocked_on to PROXY_WAKING. Otherwise we can see
+ * circular blocked_on relationships that can't resolve.
+ *
+ * NOTE: We pass NULL here instead of lock, because we
+ * are waking the mutex owner, who may be currently
+ * blocked on a different mutex.
+ */
+#ifndef WW_RT
clear_task_blocked_on(owner, NULL);
+#endif
wake_q_add(wake_q, owner);
}
return true;
diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index b998ef6b87af..dcad037cbc08 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -6936,7 +6936,7 @@ find_proxy_task(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *donor, struct rq_flags *rf)
* By taking mutex->wait_lock we hold off concurrent mutex_unlock()
* and ensure @owner sticks around.
*/
- guard(raw_spinlock)(&mutex->wait_lock);
+ guard(raw_spinlock)(mutex_wait_lock(mutex));
guard(raw_spinlock)(&p->blocked_lock);

/* Check again that p is blocked with blocked_lock held */
--
2.43.0