[PATCH] workqueue: Add pool_workqueue to pending_pwqs list when unplugging multiple inactive works

Matthew Brost
2026-03-31T22:18:44Z

In unplug_oldest_pwq(), the first inactive pool_workqueue is activated
correctly. However, if multiple inactive works exist on the same
pool_workqueue, subsequent works fail to activate because
wq_node_nr_active.pending_pwqs is empty — the list insertion is skipped
when the pool_workqueue is plugged.

Fix this by checking for additional inactive works in
unplug_oldest_pwq() and updating wq_node_nr_active.pending_pwqs
accordingly.

Cc: Carlos Santa <carlos.santa@intel.com>
Cc: Ryan Neph <ryanneph@google.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Cc: Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@gmail.com>
Cc: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 4c065dbce1e8 ("workqueue: Enable unbound cpumask update on ordered workqueues")
Signed-off-by: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>

---

This bug was first reported by Google, where the Xe driver appeared to
hang due to a fencing signal not completing. We traced the issue to work
items not being scheduled, and it can be trivially reproduced on drm-tip
with the following commands:

shell0:
for i in {1..100}; do echo "Run $i"; xe_exec_threads --r \
threads-rebind-bindexecqueue; done

shell1:
for i in {1..1000}; do echo "toggle $i"; echo f > \
/sys/devices/virtual/workqueue/cpumask; echo ff > \
/sys/devices/virtual/workqueue/cpumask; echo fff > \
/sys/devices/virtual/workqueue/cpumask ; echo ffff > \
/sys/devices/virtual/workqueue/cpumask; sleep .1; done
---
kernel/workqueue.c | 14 +++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/workqueue.c b/kernel/workqueue.c
index b77119d71641..b2cdb44ccb56 100644
--- a/kernel/workqueue.c
+++ b/kernel/workqueue.c
@@ -1849,8 +1849,20 @@ static void unplug_oldest_pwq(struct workqueue_struct *wq)
raw_spin_lock_irq(&pwq->pool->lock);
if (pwq->plugged) {
pwq->plugged = false;
- if (pwq_activate_first_inactive(pwq, true))
+ if (pwq_activate_first_inactive(pwq, true)) {
+ if (!list_empty(&pwq->inactive_works)) {
+ struct worker_pool *pool = pwq->pool;
+ struct wq_node_nr_active *nna =
+ wq_node_nr_active(wq, pool->node);
+
+ raw_spin_lock(&nna->lock);
+ if (list_empty(&pwq->pending_node))
+ list_add_tail(&pwq->pending_node,
+ &nna->pending_pwqs);
+ raw_spin_unlock(&nna->lock);
+ }
kick_pool(pwq->pool);
+ }
}
raw_spin_unlock_irq(&pwq->pool->lock);
}
--
2.34.1