clocksource: Improve randomness in clocksource_verify_choose_cpus()
authorYury Norov [NVIDIA] <yury.norov@gmail.com>
Thu, 19 Jun 2025 18:26:25 +0000 (14:26 -0400)
committerYury Norov <yury.norov@gmail.com>
Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:27:48 +0000 (11:27 -0400)
commit8557c8628cf3cf8ebd3b32601ccdde550bbf6c54
treed93dcf9819b8999760aec589411511e82a5732cf
parent012b1043420c0bc62e52902499de40b66f37fd6a
clocksource: Improve randomness in clocksource_verify_choose_cpus()

The current algorithm of picking a random CPU works OK for dense online
cpumask, but if cpumask is non-dense, the distribution of picked CPUs
is skewed.

For example, on 8-CPU board with CPUs 4-7 offlined, the probability of
selecting CPU 0 is 5/8. Accordingly, cpus 1, 2 and 3 are chosen with
probability 1/8 each. The proper algorithm should pick each online CPU
with probability 1/4.

Switch it to cpumask_random(), which has better statistical
characteristics.

CC: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Acked-by: John Stultz <jstultz@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: "Yury Norov [NVIDIA]" <yury.norov@gmail.com>
kernel/time/clocksource.c