The patch titled
Subject: padata: document multithreaded jobs
has been added to the -mm tree. Its filename is
padata-document-multithreaded-jobs.patch
This patch should soon appear at
http://ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmots/broken-out/padata-document-multithreaded-jobs.patch
and later at
http://ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmotm/broken-out/padata-document-multithreaded-jobs.patch
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------------------------------------------------------
From: Daniel Jordan <daniel.m.jordan@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: padata: document multithreaded jobs
Add Documentation for multithreaded jobs.
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200520182645.1658949-8-daniel.m.jordan@xxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Daniel Jordan <daniel.m.jordan@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Alexander Duyck <alexander.h.duyck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Alex Williamson <alex.williamson@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Herbert Xu <herbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Josh Triplett <josh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Kirill Tkhai <ktkhai@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Pavel Machek <pavel@xxxxxx>
Cc: Pavel Tatashin <pasha.tatashin@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Robert Elliott <elliott@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Shile Zhang <shile.zhang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steffen Klassert <steffen.klassert@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steven Sistare <steven.sistare@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Tejun Heo <tj@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/core-api/padata.rst | 41 +++++++++++++++++++++-------
1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
--- a/Documentation/core-api/padata.rst~padata-document-multithreaded-jobs
+++ a/Documentation/core-api/padata.rst
@@ -4,23 +4,26 @@
The padata parallel execution mechanism
=======================================
-:Date: December 2019
+:Date: April 2020
Padata is a mechanism by which the kernel can farm jobs out to be done in
-parallel on multiple CPUs while retaining their ordering. It was developed for
-use with the IPsec code, which needs to be able to perform encryption and
-decryption on large numbers of packets without reordering those packets. The
-crypto developers made a point of writing padata in a sufficiently general
-fashion that it could be put to other uses as well.
+parallel on multiple CPUs while optionally retaining their ordering.
-Usage
-=====
+It was originally developed for IPsec, which needs to perform encryption and
+decryption on large numbers of packets without reordering those packets. This
+is currently the sole consumer of padata's serialized job support.
+
+Padata also supports multithreaded jobs, splitting up the job evenly while load
+balancing and coordinating between threads.
+
+Running Serialized Jobs
+=======================
Initializing
------------
-The first step in using padata is to set up a padata_instance structure for
-overall control of how jobs are to be run::
+The first step in using padata to run parallel jobs is to set up a
+padata_instance structure for overall control of how jobs are to be run::
#include <linux/padata.h>
@@ -162,6 +165,24 @@ functions that correspond to the allocat
It is the user's responsibility to ensure all outstanding jobs are complete
before any of the above are called.
+Running Multithreaded Jobs
+==========================
+
+A multithreaded job has a main thread and zero or more helper threads, with the
+main thread participating in the job and then waiting until all helpers have
+finished. padata splits the job into units called chunks, where a chunk is a
+piece of the job that one thread completes in one call to the thread function.
+
+A user has to do three things to run a multithreaded job. First, describe the
+job by defining a padata_mt_job structure, which is explained in the Interface
+section. This includes a pointer to the thread function, which padata will
+call each time it assigns a job chunk to a thread. Then, define the thread
+function, which accepts three arguments, ``start``, ``end``, and ``arg``, where
+the first two delimit the range that the thread operates on and the last is a
+pointer to the job's shared state, if any. Prepare the shared state, which is
+typically a stack-allocated structure that wraps the required data. Last, call
+padata_do_multithreaded(), which will return once the job is finished.
+
Interface
=========
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from daniel.m.jordan@xxxxxxxxxx are
mm-call-touch_nmi_watchdog-on-max-order-boundaries-in-deferred-init.patch
padata-remove-exit-routine.patch
padata-initialize-earlier.patch
padata-allocate-work-structures-for-parallel-jobs-from-a-pool.patch
padata-add-basic-support-for-multithreaded-jobs.patch
mm-parallelize-deferred_init_memmap.patch
mm-make-deferred-inits-max-threads-arch-specific.patch
padata-document-multithreaded-jobs.patch
