My intention is to make it easier to manipulate and maintain kthreads. Especially, I want to replace all the custom main cycles with a generic one. Also I want to make the kthreads sleep in a consistent state in a common place when there is no work. My first attempt was with a brand new API (iterant kthread), see http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.api/11892 . But I was directed to improve the existing kthread worker API. This is the 4th iteration of the new direction. 1nd..10th patches: improve the existing kthread worker API 11th..16th, 18th, 20th patches: convert several kthreads into the kthread worker API, namely: khugepaged, ring buffer benchmark, hung_task, kmemleak, ipmi, IB/fmr_pool, memstick/r592, intel_powerclamp 17th, 19th patches: do some preparation steps; they usually do some clean up that makes sense even without the conversion. Changes against v4: + added worker->delayed_work_list; it simplified the check for pending work; we do not longer need the new timer_active() function; also we do not need the link work->timer. On the other hand we need to distinguish between the normal and the delayed work by a boolean parameter passed to the common functions, e.g. __cancel_kthread_work_sync() + replaced most try_lock repeat cycles with a WARN_ON(); the API does not allow to use the work with more workers; so such a situation would be a bug; it removed the complex try_lock_kthread_work() function that supported more modes; + renamed kthread_work_pending() to queuing_blocked(); added this function later when really needed + renamed try_to_cancel_kthread_work() to __cancel_kthread_work(); in fact, this a common implementation for the async cancel() function + removed a dull check for invalid cpu number in create_kthread_worker_on_cpu(); removed some other unnecessary code structures as suggested by Tejun + consistently used bool return value in all new __cancel functions + fixed ordering of cpu and flags parameters in create_kthread_worker_on_cpu() vs. create_kthread_worker() + used memset in the init_kthread_worker() + updated many comments as suggested by Tejun and as required the above changes + removed obsolete patch adding timer_active() + removed obsolete patch for using try_lock in flush_kthread_worker() + double checked all existing users of kthread worker API that they reinitialized the work when the worker was started and would not print false warnings; all looked fine + added taken acks for the Intel Powerclamp conversion Changes against v3: + allow to free struct kthread_work from its callback; do not touch the struct from the worker post-mortem; as a side effect, the structure must be reinitialized when the worker gets restarted; updated khugepaged, and kmemleak accordingly + call del_timer_sync() with worker->lock; instead, detect canceling in the timer callback and give up an attempt to get the lock there; do busy loop with spin_is_locked() to reduce cache bouncing + renamed ipmi+func() -> ipmi_kthread_worker_func() as suggested by Corey + added some collected Reviewed-by Changes against v2: + used worker->lock to synchronize the operations with the work instead of the PENDING bit as suggested by Tejun Heo; it simplified the implementation in several ways + added timer_active(); used it together with del_timer_sync() to cancel the work a less tricky way + removed the controversial conversion of the RCU kthreads + added several other examples: hung_task, kmemleak, ipmi, IB/fmr_pool, memstick/r592, intel_powerclamp + the helper fixes for the ring buffer benchmark has been improved as suggested by Steven; they already are in the Linus tree now + fixed a possible race between the check for existing khugepaged worker and queuing the work Changes against v1: + remove wrappers to manipulate the scheduling policy and priority + remove questionable wakeup_and_destroy_kthread_worker() variant + do not check for chained work when draining the queue + allocate struct kthread worker in create_kthread_work() and use more simple checks for running worker + add support for delayed kthread works and use them instead of waiting inside the works + rework the "unrelated" fixes for the ring buffer benchmark as discussed in the 1st RFC; also sent separately + convert also the consumer in the ring buffer benchmark I have tested this patch set against the stable Linus tree for 4.5-rc5. Comments against v3 can be found at http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.mm/144964 Petr Mladek (20): kthread/smpboot: Do not park in kthread_create_on_cpu() kthread: Allow to call __kthread_create_on_node() with va_list args kthread: Add create_kthread_worker*() kthread: Add drain_kthread_worker() kthread: Add destroy_kthread_worker() kthread: Detect when a kthread work is used by more workers kthread: Initial support for delayed kthread work kthread: Allow to cancel kthread work kthread: Allow to modify delayed kthread work kthread: Better support freezable kthread workers mm/huge_page: Convert khugepaged() into kthread worker API ring_buffer: Convert benchmark kthreads into kthread worker API hung_task: Convert hungtaskd into kthread worker API kmemleak: Convert kmemleak kthread into kthread worker API ipmi: Convert kipmi kthread into kthread worker API IB/fmr_pool: Convert the cleanup thread into kthread worker API memstick/r592: Better synchronize debug messages in r592_io kthread memstick/r592: convert r592_io kthread into kthread worker API thermal/intel_powerclamp: Remove duplicated code that starts the kthread thermal/intel_powerclamp: Convert the kthread to kthread worker API drivers/char/ipmi/ipmi_si_intf.c | 121 ++++---- drivers/infiniband/core/fmr_pool.c | 54 ++-- drivers/memstick/host/r592.c | 61 ++-- drivers/memstick/host/r592.h | 5 +- drivers/thermal/intel_powerclamp.c | 302 +++++++++++-------- include/linux/kthread.h | 56 ++++ kernel/hung_task.c | 41 ++- kernel/kthread.c | 555 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- kernel/smpboot.c | 5 + kernel/trace/ring_buffer_benchmark.c | 133 ++++----- mm/huge_memory.c | 138 +++++---- mm/kmemleak.c | 87 +++--- 12 files changed, 1064 insertions(+), 494 deletions(-) CC: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@xxxxxxx> CC: linux-watchdog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CC: Corey Minyard <minyard@xxxxxxx> CC: openipmi-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CC: Doug Ledford <dledford@xxxxxxxxxx> CC: Sean Hefty <sean.hefty@xxxxxxxxx> CC: Hal Rosenstock <hal.rosenstock@xxxxxxxxx> CC: linux-rdma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CC: Maxim Levitsky <maximlevitsky@xxxxxxxxx> CC: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@xxxxxxxxx> CC: Eduardo Valentin <edubezval@xxxxxxxxx> CC: Jacob Pan <jacob.jun.pan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> CC: linux-pm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- 1.8.5.6 -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx. 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