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 3rd iteration of the new direction. 1st patch: add support to check if a timer callback is being called 2nd..12th patches: improve the existing kthread worker API 13th..18th, 20th, 22nd 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 21st, 23rd patches: do some preparation steps; they usually do some clean up that makes sense even without the conversion. 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 4.4-rc1. Petr Mladek (22): timer: Allow to check when the timer callback has not finished yet 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 kthread: Use try_lock_kthread_work() in flush_kthread_work() 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 | 116 ++++--- 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 ++++ include/linux/timer.h | 2 + kernel/hung_task.c | 41 ++- kernel/kthread.c | 618 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- kernel/smpboot.c | 5 + kernel/time/timer.c | 24 ++ kernel/trace/ring_buffer_benchmark.c | 133 ++++---- mm/huge_memory.c | 134 ++++---- mm/kmemleak.c | 86 +++-- 14 files changed, 1142 insertions(+), 495 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. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>