The previous discussion was very confusing, let me start another thread. This is orthogonal to the possible wq_has_sleeper() optimizations in fs/pipe.c we discussed before. Let me quote one of my previous emails. Consider int main(void) { int fd[2], cnt; char c; pipe(fd); if (!fork()) { // wait until the parent blocks in pipe_write() -> // wait_event_interruptible_exclusive(pipe->wr_wait, pipe_writable(pipe)); sleep(1); for (cnt = 0; cnt < 4096; ++cnt) read(fd[0], &c, 1); return 0; } // parent for (;;) write(fd[1], &c, 1); } If I read this code correctly, in this case the child will wakeup the parent 4095 times for no reason, pipe_writable() == !pipe_pull() will still be true until the last read(fd[0], &c, 1) does if (!buf->len) tail = pipe_update_tail(pipe, buf, tail); and after that the parent can write the next char. Does the patch below make sense? With this patch pipe_read() wakes the writer up only when pipe_full() changes from T to F. Still incomplete, obviously not for inclusion. But is it correct or not? I am not sure I understand this nontrivial logic... Oleg. --- diff --git a/fs/pipe.c b/fs/pipe.c index 12b22c2723b7..27ffb650f131 100644 --- a/fs/pipe.c +++ b/fs/pipe.c @@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ pipe_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *to) size_t total_len = iov_iter_count(to); struct file *filp = iocb->ki_filp; struct pipe_inode_info *pipe = filp->private_data; - bool was_full, wake_next_reader = false; + bool wake_writer = false, wake_next_reader = false; ssize_t ret; /* Null read succeeds. */ @@ -271,7 +271,6 @@ pipe_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *to) * (WF_SYNC), because we want them to get going and generate more * data for us. */ - was_full = pipe_full(pipe->head, pipe->tail, pipe->max_usage); for (;;) { /* Read ->head with a barrier vs post_one_notification() */ unsigned int head = smp_load_acquire(&pipe->head); @@ -340,8 +339,10 @@ pipe_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *to) buf->len = 0; } - if (!buf->len) + if (!buf->len) { + wake_writer |= pipe_full(head, tail, pipe->max_usage); tail = pipe_update_tail(pipe, buf, tail); + } total_len -= chars; if (!total_len) break; /* common path: read succeeded */ @@ -377,7 +378,7 @@ pipe_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *to) * _very_ unlikely case that the pipe was full, but we got * no data. */ - if (unlikely(was_full)) + if (unlikely(wake_writer)) wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll(&pipe->wr_wait, EPOLLOUT | EPOLLWRNORM); kill_fasync(&pipe->fasync_writers, SIGIO, POLL_OUT); @@ -391,14 +392,14 @@ pipe_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *to) return -ERESTARTSYS; mutex_lock(&pipe->mutex); - was_full = pipe_full(pipe->head, pipe->tail, pipe->max_usage); wake_next_reader = true; + wake_writer = false; } if (pipe_empty(pipe->head, pipe->tail)) wake_next_reader = false; mutex_unlock(&pipe->mutex); - if (was_full) + if (wake_writer) wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll(&pipe->wr_wait, EPOLLOUT | EPOLLWRNORM); if (wake_next_reader) wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll(&pipe->rd_wait, EPOLLIN | EPOLLRDNORM);