Linux kernel mirror (for testing) git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel os linux

kthread_worker: document CPU hotplug handling

The kthread worker API is simple. In short, it allows to create, use, and
destroy workers. kthread_create_worker_on_cpu() just allows to bind a
newly created worker to a given CPU.

It is up to the API user how to handle CPU hotplug. They have to decide
how to handle pending work items, prevent queuing new ones, and restore
the functionality when the CPU goes off and on. There are few catches:

+ The CPU affinity gets lost when it is scheduled on an offline CPU.

+ The worker might not exist when the CPU was off when the user
created the workers.

A good practice is to implement two CPU hotplug callbacks and
destroy/create the worker when CPU goes down/up.

Mention this in the function description.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: grammar tweaks]

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20201028073031.4536-1-qiang.zhang@windriver.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20201102101039.19227-1-pmladek@suse.com
Reported-by: Zhang Qiang <Qiang.Zhang@windriver.com>
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Cc: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

authored by

Petr Mladek and committed by
Linus Torvalds
ebb2bdce f630c7c6

+19 -1
+19 -1
kernel/kthread.c
··· 793 793 * A good practice is to add the cpu number also into the worker name. 794 794 * For example, use kthread_create_worker_on_cpu(cpu, "helper/%d", cpu). 795 795 * 796 - * Returns a pointer to the allocated worker on success, ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) 796 + * CPU hotplug: 797 + * The kthread worker API is simple and generic. It just provides a way 798 + * to create, use, and destroy workers. 799 + * 800 + * It is up to the API user how to handle CPU hotplug. They have to decide 801 + * how to handle pending work items, prevent queuing new ones, and 802 + * restore the functionality when the CPU goes off and on. There are a 803 + * few catches: 804 + * 805 + * - CPU affinity gets lost when it is scheduled on an offline CPU. 806 + * 807 + * - The worker might not exist when the CPU was off when the user 808 + * created the workers. 809 + * 810 + * Good practice is to implement two CPU hotplug callbacks and to 811 + * destroy/create the worker when the CPU goes down/up. 812 + * 813 + * Return: 814 + * The pointer to the allocated worker on success, ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) 797 815 * when the needed structures could not get allocated, and ERR_PTR(-EINTR) 798 816 * when the worker was SIGKILLed. 799 817 */