Re: [PATCH 1/8] PM: Opportunistic suspend support.

Arve Hjønnevåg
2010-05-27T23:52:31Z

2010/5/27 Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>:
> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 04:36:28PM -0700, Arve Hjønnevåg wrote:
>> 2010/5/27 Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>:
>> > On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 05:52:40PM -0700, Arve Hjønnevåg wrote:
>> >> 2010/5/26 Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>:
>> >> > On Wed, 26 May 2010, Arve Hjønnevåg wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> > I must be missing something.  In Arve's patch 1/8, if the system is in
>> >> >> > opportunistic suspend, and a wakeup event occurs but no suspend
>> >> >> > blockers get enabled by the handler, what causes the system to go back
>> >> >> > into suspend after the event is handled?  Isn't that a loop of some
>> >> >> > sort?
>> >> >> >
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Yes it is a loop. I think what you are missing is that it only loops
>> >> >> repeatedly if the driver that aborts suspend does not use a suspend
>> >> >> blocker.
>> >> >
>> >> > You mean "the driver that handles the wakeup event".  I was asking what
>> >> > happened if suspend succeeded and then a wakeup occurred.  But yes, if
>> >> > a suspend blocker is used then its release causes another suspend
>> >> > attempt, with no looping.
>> >> >
>> >> >> > And even if it isn't, so what?  What's wrong with looping behavior?
>> >> >>
>> >> >> It is a significant power drain.
>> >> >
>> >> > Not in the situation I was discussing.
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> If you meant it spend most of the time suspended, then I agree. It
>> >> only wastes power when a driver blocks suspend by returning an error
>> >> from its suspend hook and we are forced to loop doing no useful work.
>> >>
>> >
>> > If driver refuses to suspend that means there are events that need
>> > processing. I fail to see why it would be called "looping doing no
>> > useful work".
>>
>> Because the useful work is done in another thread. All the loop does
>> is check if the useful work has completed which most likely will slow
>> down the useful work.
>
> Or useful work could signal when it is done processing critical section.
>

That is what suspend_unblock does.

>> Blocking suspend with a suspend blocker until
>> the useful work is done is more efficient.
>>
>
> --
> Dmitry
>

--
Arve Hjønnevåg