Re: [PATCH] drm/radeon: Remove deprecated create_singlethread_workqueue

Tejun Heo
2016-07-06T13:45:36Z

Hello, Michel.

On Wed, Jul 06, 2016 at 12:12:52PM +0900, Michel Dänzer wrote:
> There is an ordering requirement between the two queues, but it's
> enforced by the driver (by only queuing the unpin work once a flip has
> completed, which only happens after the corresponding flip work has run).

Oh I see.

> Not being very familiar with the workqueue APIs, I'll describe how it's
> supposed to work from a driver POV, which will hopefully help you guys
> decide on the most appropriate alloc_workqueue parameters.
>
> There is one flip work queue for each hardware CRTC. At most one
> radeon_flip_work_func item can be queued for any of them at any time.
> When a radeon_flip_work_func item is queued, it should be executed ASAP
> (so WQ_HIGHPRI might be appropriate?).

Hmmm... the only time WQ_HIGHPRI should be used is when it'd otherwise
require a kthread w/ nice value at -20. Would that be the case here?
What are the consequences of the work item getting delayed? Also,
what kind of delays matter here? Is it millisec range or micro?

> In contrast, the radeon_unpin_work_func items aren't particularly
> urgent, and it's okay for several of them to be queued up. So I guess it
> would actually make sense to use a different workqueue for them, maybe
> even the default one?

If the flip work doesn't require high priority kthread, both of them
can be queued to system_wq and flushed individually on shutdown. The
default workqueue now has high enough concurrency that it isn't
necessary to worry about getting delayed by other work items.

Thanks.

--
tejun