[8.0] Add a config flag to experiment with some work item prioritization changes in cases involving a lot of sync-over-async (#103984)

* [8.0] Add a config flag to experiment with some work item prioritization changes in cases involving a lot of sync-over-async

Some services that use a lot of sync-over-async were seen to experience stalls due to some priority inversion issues in work items that get queued to the thread pool. For instance, a work item W1 queues another work item W2 to the global queue and blocks waiting for a task to complete, where W2 would need to run in order to complete the task, but W2 is queued behind a number of other work items that operate like W1, and this sometimes leads to long-duration stalls. This change adds an experimental config option that when enabled, enqueues some kinds of work items to a new low-priority global queue that is checked after all other global queues. This was seen to help in some cases.

Author: kouvel

src/libraries/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Threading/ThreadPoolWorkQueue.cs

@@ -381,6 +381,17 @@ public int Count
             }
         }
 
+#if CORECLR
+        // This config var can be used to enable an experimental mode that may reduce the effects of some priority inversion
+        // issues seen in cases involving a lot of sync-over-async. See EnqueueForPrioritizationExperiment() for more
+        // information. The mode is experimental and may change in the future.
+        internal static readonly bool s_prioritizationExperiment =
+            AppContextConfigHelper.GetBooleanConfig(
+                "System.Threading.ThreadPool.PrioritizationExperiment",
+                "DOTNET_ThreadPool_PrioritizationExperiment",
+                defaultValue: false);
+#endif
+
         private const int ProcessorsPerAssignableWorkItemQueue = 16;
         private static readonly int s_assignableWorkItemQueueCount =
             Environment.ProcessorCount <= 32 ? 0 :
@@ -394,6 +405,11 @@ public int Count
         internal readonly ConcurrentQueue<object> workItems = new ConcurrentQueue<object>();
         internal readonly ConcurrentQueue<object> highPriorityWorkItems = new ConcurrentQueue<object>();
 
+#if CORECLR
+        internal readonly ConcurrentQueue<object> lowPriorityWorkItems =
+            s_prioritizationExperiment ? new ConcurrentQueue<object>() : null!;
+#endif
+
         // SOS's ThreadPool command depends on the following name. The global queue doesn't scale well beyond a point of
         // concurrency. Some additional queues may be added and assigned to a limited number of worker threads if necessary to
         // help with limiting the concurrency level.
@@ -598,23 +614,68 @@ public void Enqueue(object callback, bool forceGlobal)
             if (_loggingEnabled && FrameworkEventSource.Log.IsEnabled())
                 FrameworkEventSource.Log.ThreadPoolEnqueueWorkObject(callback);
 
-            ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals? tl;
-            if (!forceGlobal && (tl = ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals.threadLocals) != null)
+#if CORECLR
+            if (s_prioritizationExperiment)
             {
-                tl.workStealingQueue.LocalPush(callback);
+                EnqueueForPrioritizationExperiment(callback, forceGlobal);
             }
             else
+#endif
             {
-                ConcurrentQueue<object> queue =
-                    s_assignableWorkItemQueueCount > 0 && (tl = ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals.threadLocals) != null
-                        ? tl.assignedGlobalWorkItemQueue
-                        : workItems;
-                queue.Enqueue(callback);
+                ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals? tl;
+                if (!forceGlobal && (tl = ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals.threadLocals) != null)
+                {
+                    tl.workStealingQueue.LocalPush(callback);
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    ConcurrentQueue<object> queue =
+                        s_assignableWorkItemQueueCount > 0 && (tl = ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals.threadLocals) != null
+                            ? tl.assignedGlobalWorkItemQueue
+                            : workItems;
+                    queue.Enqueue(callback);
+                }
             }
 
             EnsureThreadRequested();
         }
 
+#if CORECLR
+        [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.NoInlining)]
+        private void EnqueueForPrioritizationExperiment(object callback, bool forceGlobal)
+        {
+            ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals? tl = ThreadPoolWorkQueueThreadLocals.threadLocals;
+            if (!forceGlobal && tl != null)
+            {
+                tl.workStealingQueue.LocalPush(callback);
+                return;
+            }
+
+            ConcurrentQueue<object> queue;
+
+            // This is a rough and experimental attempt at identifying work items that should be lower priority than other
+            // global work items (even ones that haven't been queued yet), and to queue them to a low-priority global queue that
+            // is checked after all other global queues. In some cases, a work item may queue another work item that is part of
+            // the same set of work. For global work items, the second work item would typically get queued behind other global
+            // work items. In some cases involving a lot of sync-over-async, that can significantly delay worker threads from
+            // getting unblocked.
+            if (tl == null && callback is QueueUserWorkItemCallbackBase)
+            {
+                queue = lowPriorityWorkItems;
+            }
+            else if (s_assignableWorkItemQueueCount > 0 && tl != null)
+            {
+                queue = tl.assignedGlobalWorkItemQueue;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                queue = workItems;
+            }
+
+            queue.Enqueue(callback);
+        }
+#endif
+
         public void EnqueueAtHighPriority(object workItem)
         {
             Debug.Assert((workItem is IThreadPoolWorkItem) ^ (workItem is Task));
@@ -691,6 +752,14 @@ internal static bool LocalFindAndPop(object callback)
                 }
             }
 
+#if CORECLR
+            // Check for low-priority work items
+            if (s_prioritizationExperiment && lowPriorityWorkItems.TryDequeue(out workItem))
+            {
+                return workItem;
+            }
+#endif
+
             // Try to steal from other threads' local work items
             {
                 WorkStealingQueue localWsq = tl.workStealingQueue;
@@ -750,6 +819,13 @@ public long GlobalCount
             get
             {
                 long count = (long)highPriorityWorkItems.Count + workItems.Count;
+#if CORECLR
+                if (s_prioritizationExperiment)
+                {
+                    count += lowPriorityWorkItems.Count;
+                }
+#endif
+
                 for (int i = 0; i < s_assignableWorkItemQueueCount; i++)
                 {
                     count += _assignableWorkItemQueues[i].Count;
@@ -1639,6 +1715,17 @@ internal static IEnumerable<object> GetQueuedWorkItems()
                 yield return workItem;
             }
 
+#if CORECLR
+            if (ThreadPoolWorkQueue.s_prioritizationExperiment)
+            {
+                // Enumerate low-priority global queue
+                foreach (object workItem in s_workQueue.lowPriorityWorkItems)
+                {
+                    yield return workItem;
+                }
+            }
+#endif
+
             // Enumerate each local queue
             foreach (ThreadPoolWorkQueue.WorkStealingQueue wsq in ThreadPoolWorkQueue.WorkStealingQueueList.Queues)
             {

src/libraries/System.Threading.ThreadPool/tests/ThreadPoolTests.cs

@@ -1160,6 +1160,89 @@ public void ThreadPoolMinMaxThreadsEventTest()
             }).Dispose();
         }
 
+        [ConditionalFact(nameof(IsThreadingAndRemoteExecutorSupported))]
+        public static void PrioritizationExperimentConfigVarTest()
+        {
+            // Avoid contaminating the main process' environment
+            RemoteExecutor.Invoke(() =>
+            {
+                // The actual test process below will inherit the config var
+                Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("DOTNET_ThreadPool_PrioritizationExperiment", "1");
+
+                RemoteExecutor.Invoke(() =>
+                {
+                    const int WorkItemCountPerKind = 100;
+
+                    int completedWorkItemCount = 0;
+                    var allWorkItemsCompleted = new AutoResetEvent(false);
+                    Action<int> workItem = _ =>
+                    {
+                        if (Interlocked.Increment(ref completedWorkItemCount) == WorkItemCountPerKind * 3)
+                        {
+                            allWorkItemsCompleted.Set();
+                        }
+                    };
+
+                    var startTest = new ManualResetEvent(false);
+
+                    var t = new Thread(() =>
+                    {
+                        // Enqueue global work from a non-thread-pool thread
+
+                        startTest.CheckedWait();
+
+                        for (int i = 0; i < WorkItemCountPerKind; i++)
+                        {
+                            ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(workItem, 0, preferLocal: false);
+                        }
+                    });
+                    t.IsBackground = true;
+                    t.Start();
+
+                    ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(
+                        _ =>
+                        {
+                            // Enqueue global work from a thread pool worker thread
+
+                            startTest.CheckedWait();
+
+                            for (int i = 0; i < WorkItemCountPerKind; i++)
+                            {
+                                ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(workItem, 0, preferLocal: false);
+                            }
+                        },
+                        0,
+                        preferLocal: false);
+
+                    t = new Thread(() =>
+                    {
+                        // Enqueue local work from thread pool worker threads
+
+                        Assert.True(WorkItemCountPerKind / 10 * 10 == WorkItemCountPerKind);
+                        Action<int> localWorkItemEnqueuer = _ =>
+                        {
+                            for (int i = 0; i < WorkItemCountPerKind / 10; i++)
+                            {
+                                ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(workItem, 0, preferLocal: true);
+                            }
+                        };
+
+                        startTest.CheckedWait();
+
+                        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
+                        {
+                            ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(localWorkItemEnqueuer, 0, preferLocal: false);
+                        }
+                    });
+                    t.IsBackground = true;
+                    t.Start();
+
+                    startTest.Set();
+                    allWorkItemsCompleted.CheckedWait();
+                }).Dispose();
+            }).Dispose();
+        }
+
         public static bool IsThreadingAndRemoteExecutorSupported =>
             PlatformDetection.IsThreadingSupported && RemoteExecutor.IsSupported;