Merge #12618: Set SCHED_BATCH priority on the loadblk thread.

d54874d Set SCHED_BATCH priority on the loadblk thread. (Evan Klitzke)

Pull request description:

  Today I came across #10271, and while reading the discussion #6358 was linked to. Linux systems have a `SCHED_BATCH` scheduler priority that is useful for threads like loadblk. You can find the full details at [sched(7)](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/sched.7.html), but I'll quote the relevant part of the man page below:

  > ...this policy will cause the scheduler to always assume that the thread is
  CPU-intensive. Consequently, the scheduler will apply a small scheduling penalty
  with respect to wakeup behavior, so that this thread is mildly disfavored in
  scheduling decisions.
  >
  > This policy is useful for workloads that are noninteractive, but do not want to
  lower their nice value, and for workloads that want a deterministic scheduling
  policy without interactivity causing extra preemptions (between the workload's
  tasks).

  I think this change is useful independently of #10271 and irrespective of whether that change is merged. Under normal operation the loadblk thread will just import `mempool.dat`. However, if Bitcoin is started with `-reindex` or `-reindex-chainstate` this thread will use a great deal of CPU while it rebuilds the chainstate database (and the block database in the case of `-reindex`). By setting `SCHED_BATCH` this thread is less likely to interfere with interactive tasks (e.g. the user's web browser, text editor, etc.).

  I'm leaving the nice value unchanged (which also affects scheduling decisions) because I think that's better set by the user. Likewise I'm not using [ioprio_set(2)](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/ioprio_set.2.html) because it can cause the thread to become completely I/O starved (and knowledgeable users can use `ionice(1)` anyway).

Tree-SHA512: ea8f7d3921ed5708948809da771345cdc33efd7ba3323e9dfec07a25bc21e8612e2676f9c178e2710c7bc437e8c9cafc5e0463613688fea5699b6e8e2fec6cff

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 7114c0accd..f625a61d8b 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -381,4 +381,13 @@ std::unique_ptr<T> MakeUnique(Args&&... args)
     return std::unique_ptr<T>(new T(std::forward<Args>(args)...));
 }
 
+/**
+ * On platforms that support it, tell the kernel the calling thread is
+ * CPU-intensive and non-interactive. See SCHED_BATCH in sched(7) for details.
+ *
+ * @return The return value of sched_setschedule(), or 1 on systems without
+ * sched_setchedule().
+ */
+int ScheduleBatchPriority(void);
+
 #endif // BITCOIN_UTIL_H