From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from mail-pb0-f46.google.com ([209.85.160.46]:54738 "EHLO mail-pb0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751966Ab2GSVPP (ORCPT ); Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:15:15 -0400 Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:15:10 -0700 From: Tejun Heo To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Cc: Andrew Morton , Avi Kivity , kvm@vger.kernel.org, Andy Walls , ivtv-devel@ivtvdriver.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org, Grant Likely , spi-devel-general@lists.sourceforge.net, Linus Torvalds Subject: [PATCHSET] kthread_worker: reimplement flush_kthread_work() to allow freeing during execution Message-ID: <20120719211510.GA32763@google.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-media-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hello, kthread_worker was introduced together with concurrency managed workqueue to serve workqueue users which need a special dedicated worker - e.g. RT scheduling. This is minimal queue / flush / flush all iterface on top of kthread and each provided interface matches the workqueue counterpart so that switching isn't difficult. However, one noticeable difference was that kthread_worker doesn't allow a work item to be freed while being executed. The intention was to keep the code simpler but it didn't really and the restriction is subtle and does prevent some valid use cases. This two-patch series reimplements flush_kthread_work() so that it uses an extra work item for flushing. While this takes a bit more lines, this is easier to understand and removes the annoying difference. This patchset contains the following two patches. 0001-kthread_worker-reorganize-to-prepare-for-flush_kthre.patch 0002-kthread_worker-reimplement-flush_kthread_work-to-all.patch The first one is a prep patch which makes no functional changes. The second reimplements flush_kthread_work(). All current kthread_worker users are cc'd. If no one objects, I'll push it through the workqueue branch. This patchset is also available in the following git branch. git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq.git review-kthread_worker-flush diffstat follows. Thanks. include/linux/kthread.h | 8 +--- kernel/kthread.c | 86 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------- 2 files changed, 52 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-) -- tejun