Linux Documentation
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>, Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@gmail.com>,
	"Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
	Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] workqueue: doc: Call out the non-reentrance conditions
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2021 09:31:17 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20211018013117.256284-1-boqun.feng@gmail.com> (raw)

The current doc of workqueue API suggests that work items are
non-reentrant: any work item is guaranteed to be executed by at most one
worker system-wide at any given time. However this is not true, the
following case can cause a work item W executed by two workers at
the same time:

        queue_work_on(0, WQ1, W);
        // after a worker picks up W and clear the pending bit
        queue_work_on(1, WQ2, W);
        // workers on CPU0 and CPU1 will execute W in the same time.

, which means the non-reentrance of a work item is conditional, and
Lai Jiangshan provided a nice summary[1] of the conditions, therefore
use it to improve the doc.

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAJhGHyDudet_xyNk=8xnuO2==o-u06s0E0GZVP4Q67nmQ84Ceg@mail.gmail.com/

Signed-off-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/core-api/workqueue.rst | 21 +++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/workqueue.rst b/Documentation/core-api/workqueue.rst
index 541d31de8926..3b22ed137662 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/workqueue.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/workqueue.rst
@@ -216,10 +216,6 @@ resources, scheduled and executed.
 
   This flag is meaningless for unbound wq.
 
-Note that the flag ``WQ_NON_REENTRANT`` no longer exists as all
-workqueues are now non-reentrant - any work item is guaranteed to be
-executed by at most one worker system-wide at any given time.
-
 
 ``max_active``
 --------------
@@ -391,6 +387,23 @@ the stack trace of the offending worker thread. ::
 The work item's function should be trivially visible in the stack
 trace.
 
+Non-reentrance Conditions
+=========================
+
+Workqueue guarantees that a work item cannot be re-entrant if the following
+conditions hold after a work item gets queued:
+
+        1. The work function hasn't been changed.
+        2. No one queues the work item to another workqueue.
+        3. The work item hasn't been reinitiated.
+
+In other words, if the above conditions hold, the work item is guaranteed to be
+executed by at most one worker system-wide at any given time.
+
+Note that requeuing the work item (to the same queue) in the self function
+doesn't break these conditions, so it's safe to do. Otherwise, caution is
+required when breaking the conditions inside a work function.
+
 
 Kernel Inline Documentations Reference
 ======================================
-- 
2.33.0


             reply	other threads:[~2021-10-18  1:31 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-10-18  1:31 Boqun Feng [this message]
2021-10-18  2:17 ` [PATCH] workqueue: doc: Call out the non-reentrance conditions Matthew Wilcox
2021-10-18  3:19   ` Boqun Feng
2021-10-18 11:26     ` Matthew Wilcox
2021-10-19 17:47 ` Tejun Heo
2021-10-20  5:40   ` Boqun Feng
2021-10-20 16:18     ` Tejun Heo

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20211018013117.256284-1-boqun.feng@gmail.com \
    --to=boqun.feng@gmail.com \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=frederic@kernel.org \
    --cc=jiangshanlai@gmail.com \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=paulmck@kernel.org \
    --cc=peterz@infradead.org \
    --cc=tglx@linutronix.de \
    --cc=tj@kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox