Added Tejun into CC because of the workqueue API related question at the end of the mail. On Wed 2021-05-26 19:06:06, Oleg Nesterov wrote: > On 05/24, Petr Mladek wrote: > > > > Your patch changes the semantic. The current semantic is the same for > > the workqueue's counter-part mod_delayed_work_on(). > > OK, I see, thanks. I was confused by the comment. > > > We should actually keep the "ret" value as is to stay compatible with > > workqueue API: > > > > /* > > * Canceling could run in parallel from kthread_cancel_delayed_work_sync > > * and change work's canceling count as the spinlock is released and regain > > * in __kthread_cancel_work so we need to check the count again. Otherwise, > > * we might incorrectly queue the dwork and further cause > > * cancel_delayed_work_sync thread waiting for flush dwork endlessly. > > * > > * Keep the ret code. The API primary informs the caller > > * whether some pending work has been canceled (not proceed). > > */ > > if (work->canceling) > > goto out; > > Agreed, we should keep the "ret" value. Martin Liu, could you please resend the patch without the "ret = false" line? See above. Andrew, could you please remove this patch from the -mm tree for now? > but unless I am confused again this doesn't match mod_delayed_work_on() > which always returns true if it races with cancel(). Nevermind, I think > this doesn't matter. Good point. I think that it is actually a bug. Most callers ignore the return code but there is the following user: static void addrconf_del_dad_work(struct inet6_ifaddr *ifp) { if (cancel_delayed_work(&ifp->dad_work)) __in6_ifa_put(ifp); } static void addrconf_mod_dad_work(struct inet6_ifaddr *ifp, unsigned long delay) { in6_ifa_hold(ifp); if (mod_delayed_work(addrconf_wq, &ifp->dad_work, delay)) in6_ifa_put(ifp); } If mod_delayed_work() races with cancel_delayed_work() then both might return true and call in6_ifa_put(ifp). I thought that they were serialized by ifp->lock. But, for example, addrconf_dad_start() calls addrconf_mod_dad_work() after releasing this lock. It is possible that they are serialized another way. But I think that in principle only the one that really cancelled a pending work should return "true". Tejun, any opinion? Feel free to ask for more context. Best Regards, Petr