From: Eric Dumazet While doing some benchmarks of an Apache/PHP SMP server, I noticed high oprofile numbers in in_group_p() and _atomic_dec_and_lock(). rank percent 1 4.8911 % __link_path_walk 2 4.8503 % __d_lookup *3 4.2911 % _atomic_dec_and_lock 4 3.9307 % __copy_to_user_ll 5 4.9004 % sysenter_past_esp *6 3.3248 % in_group_p It appears that in_group_p() does an uncessary get_group_info(current->group_info); /* atomic_inc() */ ... /* access current->group_info */ put_group_info(current->group_info); /* _atomic_dec_and_lock */ It is not necessary to do this, because the current task holds a reference on its own group_info, and this reference cannot change during the lookup. This patch deletes the get_group_info()/put_group_info() pair from sys_getgroups(), in_group_p() and in_egroup_p() functions. Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet Cc: Tim Hockin Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton --- kernel/sys.c | 6 ------ 1 files changed, 6 deletions(-) diff -puN kernel/sys.c~no-need-to-protect-current-group_info-in-sys_getgroups kernel/sys.c --- devel/kernel/sys.c~no-need-to-protect-current-group_info-in-sys_getgroups 2006-03-16 02:08:43.000000000 -0800 +++ devel-akpm/kernel/sys.c 2006-03-16 02:08:43.000000000 -0800 @@ -1421,7 +1421,6 @@ asmlinkage long sys_getgroups(int gidset return -EINVAL; /* no need to grab task_lock here; it cannot change */ - get_group_info(current->group_info); i = current->group_info->ngroups; if (gidsetsize) { if (i > gidsetsize) { @@ -1434,7 +1433,6 @@ asmlinkage long sys_getgroups(int gidset } } out: - put_group_info(current->group_info); return i; } @@ -1475,9 +1473,7 @@ int in_group_p(gid_t grp) { int retval = 1; if (grp != current->fsgid) { - get_group_info(current->group_info); retval = groups_search(current->group_info, grp); - put_group_info(current->group_info); } return retval; } @@ -1488,9 +1484,7 @@ int in_egroup_p(gid_t grp) { int retval = 1; if (grp != current->egid) { - get_group_info(current->group_info); retval = groups_search(current->group_info, grp); - put_group_info(current->group_info); } return retval; } _