Speakers
Description
sched_ext[1] is a Linux kernel feature that enables implementing safe task schedulers in BPF and dynamically loading them at runtime. Its key strength is flexibility, allowing rapid iteration of scheduling policies, deploying changes on the fly and quickly addressing topology inefficiencies or workload-specific issues.
This MC provides a space for the community to discuss the evolution of sched_ext, its impact and future strategies aimed at improving integration with other Linux kernel subsystems.
Last year the sched_ext MC proved highly productive in facilitating coordination with other kernel maintainers, allowing us to address open issues and limitations of this technology (see for example the introduction of a dedicated DL server for the SCHED_EXT scheduling class [2]).
Topics for discussion include (but are not limited to):
- Hierarchical cgroup sub-schedulers
- Integration with SCHED_DEADLINE (DL server interface and related improvements)
- Proxy execution support
- Device-aware scheduling policies (e.g., GPU auto-affinitization)
- Composable schedulers and reusable scheduler libraries (leveraging BPF arenas)
- Scheduling strategies for gaming and latency-sensitive workloads
- Tickless scheduling and CPU isolation
- Improved tooling for tracing and visualizing scheduler performance
A public CFP will follow to gather additional topics that may be relevant to the Linux community.
[1] https://github.com/sched-ext/scx
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260126100050.3854740-1-arighi@nvidia.com