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authorTejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>2010-10-11 15:12:27 +0200
committerTejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>2010-10-11 15:20:26 +0200
commit6370a6ad3b53df90b4700977f7718118a2cd524a (patch)
tree2d1f45a19e66329813ce133b18f920d8c450b0c0 /Documentation/workqueue.txt
parent30310045dd20a286cf3800f063f79b468e132fb1 (diff)
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workqueue: add and use WQ_MEM_RECLAIM flag
Add WQ_MEM_RECLAIM flag which currently maps to WQ_RESCUER, mark WQ_RESCUER as internal and replace all external WQ_RESCUER usages to WQ_MEM_RECLAIM. This makes the API users express the intent of the workqueue instead of indicating the internal mechanism used to guarantee forward progress. This is also to make it cleaner to add more semantics to WQ_MEM_RECLAIM. For example, if deemed necessary, memory reclaim workqueues can be made highpri. This patch doesn't introduce any functional change. Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> Cc: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com> Cc: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com> Cc: Steven Whitehouse <swhiteho@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/workqueue.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/workqueue.txt29
1 files changed, 15 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/workqueue.txt b/Documentation/workqueue.txt
index e4498a2872c3..996a27d9b8db 100644
--- a/Documentation/workqueue.txt
+++ b/Documentation/workqueue.txt
@@ -196,11 +196,11 @@ resources, scheduled and executed.
suspend operations. Work items on the wq are drained and no
new work item starts execution until thawed.
- WQ_RESCUER
+ WQ_MEM_RECLAIM
All wq which might be used in the memory reclaim paths _MUST_
- have this flag set. This reserves one worker exclusively for
- the execution of this wq under memory pressure.
+ have this flag set. The wq is guaranteed to have at least one
+ execution context regardless of memory pressure.
WQ_HIGHPRI
@@ -356,11 +356,11 @@ If q1 has WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE set,
6. Guidelines
-* Do not forget to use WQ_RESCUER if a wq may process work items which
- are used during memory reclaim. Each wq with WQ_RESCUER set has one
- rescuer thread reserved for it. If there is dependency among
- multiple work items used during memory reclaim, they should be
- queued to separate wq each with WQ_RESCUER.
+* Do not forget to use WQ_MEM_RECLAIM if a wq may process work items
+ which are used during memory reclaim. Each wq with WQ_MEM_RECLAIM
+ set has an execution context reserved for it. If there is
+ dependency among multiple work items used during memory reclaim,
+ they should be queued to separate wq each with WQ_MEM_RECLAIM.
* Unless strict ordering is required, there is no need to use ST wq.
@@ -368,12 +368,13 @@ If q1 has WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE set,
recommended. In most use cases, concurrency level usually stays
well under the default limit.
-* A wq serves as a domain for forward progress guarantee (WQ_RESCUER),
- flush and work item attributes. Work items which are not involved
- in memory reclaim and don't need to be flushed as a part of a group
- of work items, and don't require any special attribute, can use one
- of the system wq. There is no difference in execution
- characteristics between using a dedicated wq and a system wq.
+* A wq serves as a domain for forward progress guarantee
+ (WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, flush and work item attributes. Work items which
+ are not involved in memory reclaim and don't need to be flushed as a
+ part of a group of work items, and don't require any special
+ attribute, can use one of the system wq. There is no difference in
+ execution characteristics between using a dedicated wq and a system
+ wq.
* Unless work items are expected to consume a huge amount of CPU
cycles, using a bound wq is usually beneficial due to the increased