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authorDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2010-10-06 22:11:17 -0400
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2010-10-06 22:11:17 -0400
commit12e94471b2be5ef9b55b10004a3a2cd819490036 (patch)
treef84ae818687dc7c35bd54f11bfb9717278d28a4e /Documentation
parent79315068f4560f3f7bd6e9790190dcb43059770c (diff)
parentcb655d0f3d57c23db51b981648e452988c0223f9 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/kernel-api.tmpl1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl6
-rw-r--r--Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt45
-rw-r--r--Documentation/cgroups/blkio-controller.txt28
-rw-r--r--Documentation/gpio.txt22
-rw-r--r--Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface7
-rw-r--r--Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt5
-rw-r--r--Documentation/mutex-design.txt3
-rw-r--r--Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt2
-rw-r--r--Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/workqueue.txt380
12 files changed, 485 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl
index ecd35e9d4410..feca0758391e 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@
46 46
47 <sect1><title>Atomic and pointer manipulation</title> 47 <sect1><title>Atomic and pointer manipulation</title>
48!Iarch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h 48!Iarch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h
49!Iarch/x86/include/asm/unaligned.h
50 </sect1> 49 </sect1>
51 50
52 <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title> 51 <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title>
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-api.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-api.tmpl
index a20c6f6fffc3..6899f471fb15 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-api.tmpl
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-api.tmpl
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@
57 </para> 57 </para>
58 58
59 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title> 59 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title>
60!Ilib/vsprintf.c
61!Elib/vsprintf.c 60!Elib/vsprintf.c
62 </sect1> 61 </sect1>
63 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title> 62 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title>
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
index 0b1a3f97f285..a0d479d1e1dd 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
@@ -1961,6 +1961,12 @@ machines due to caching.
1961 </sect1> 1961 </sect1>
1962 </chapter> 1962 </chapter>
1963 1963
1964 <chapter id="apiref">
1965 <title>Mutex API reference</title>
1966!Iinclude/linux/mutex.h
1967!Ekernel/mutex.c
1968 </chapter>
1969
1964 <chapter id="references"> 1970 <chapter id="references">
1965 <title>Further reading</title> 1971 <title>Further reading</title>
1966 1972
diff --git a/Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt b/Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e578feed6d81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
1CFQ ioscheduler tunables
2========================
3
4slice_idle
5----------
6This specifies how long CFQ should idle for next request on certain cfq queues
7(for sequential workloads) and service trees (for random workloads) before
8queue is expired and CFQ selects next queue to dispatch from.
9
10By default slice_idle is a non-zero value. That means by default we idle on
11queues/service trees. This can be very helpful on highly seeky media like
12single spindle SATA/SAS disks where we can cut down on overall number of
13seeks and see improved throughput.
14
15Setting slice_idle to 0 will remove all the idling on queues/service tree
16level and one should see an overall improved throughput on faster storage
17devices like multiple SATA/SAS disks in hardware RAID configuration. The down
18side is that isolation provided from WRITES also goes down and notion of
19IO priority becomes weaker.
20
21So depending on storage and workload, it might be useful to set slice_idle=0.
22In general I think for SATA/SAS disks and software RAID of SATA/SAS disks
23keeping slice_idle enabled should be useful. For any configurations where
24there are multiple spindles behind single LUN (Host based hardware RAID
25controller or for storage arrays), setting slice_idle=0 might end up in better
26throughput and acceptable latencies.
27
28CFQ IOPS Mode for group scheduling
29===================================
30Basic CFQ design is to provide priority based time slices. Higher priority
31process gets bigger time slice and lower priority process gets smaller time
32slice. Measuring time becomes harder if storage is fast and supports NCQ and
33it would be better to dispatch multiple requests from multiple cfq queues in
34request queue at a time. In such scenario, it is not possible to measure time
35consumed by single queue accurately.
36
37What is possible though is to measure number of requests dispatched from a
38single queue and also allow dispatch from multiple cfq queue at the same time.
39This effectively becomes the fairness in terms of IOPS (IO operations per
40second).
41
42If one sets slice_idle=0 and if storage supports NCQ, CFQ internally switches
43to IOPS mode and starts providing fairness in terms of number of requests
44dispatched. Note that this mode switching takes effect only for group
45scheduling. For non-cgroup users nothing should change.
diff --git a/Documentation/cgroups/blkio-controller.txt b/Documentation/cgroups/blkio-controller.txt
index 48e0b21b0059..6919d62591d9 100644
--- a/Documentation/cgroups/blkio-controller.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cgroups/blkio-controller.txt
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ Details of cgroup files
217CFQ sysfs tunable 217CFQ sysfs tunable
218================= 218=================
219/sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/group_isolation 219/sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/group_isolation
220-----------------------------------------------
220 221
221If group_isolation=1, it provides stronger isolation between groups at the 222If group_isolation=1, it provides stronger isolation between groups at the
222expense of throughput. By default group_isolation is 0. In general that 223expense of throughput. By default group_isolation is 0. In general that
@@ -243,6 +244,33 @@ By default one should run with group_isolation=0. If that is not sufficient
243and one wants stronger isolation between groups, then set group_isolation=1 244and one wants stronger isolation between groups, then set group_isolation=1
244but this will come at cost of reduced throughput. 245but this will come at cost of reduced throughput.
245 246
247/sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/slice_idle
248------------------------------------------
249On a faster hardware CFQ can be slow, especially with sequential workload.
250This happens because CFQ idles on a single queue and single queue might not
251drive deeper request queue depths to keep the storage busy. In such scenarios
252one can try setting slice_idle=0 and that would switch CFQ to IOPS
253(IO operations per second) mode on NCQ supporting hardware.
254
255That means CFQ will not idle between cfq queues of a cfq group and hence be
256able to driver higher queue depth and achieve better throughput. That also
257means that cfq provides fairness among groups in terms of IOPS and not in
258terms of disk time.
259
260/sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/group_idle
261------------------------------------------
262If one disables idling on individual cfq queues and cfq service trees by
263setting slice_idle=0, group_idle kicks in. That means CFQ will still idle
264on the group in an attempt to provide fairness among groups.
265
266By default group_idle is same as slice_idle and does not do anything if
267slice_idle is enabled.
268
269One can experience an overall throughput drop if you have created multiple
270groups and put applications in that group which are not driving enough
271IO to keep disk busy. In that case set group_idle=0, and CFQ will not idle
272on individual groups and throughput should improve.
273
246What works 274What works
247========== 275==========
248- Currently only sync IO queues are support. All the buffered writes are 276- Currently only sync IO queues are support. All the buffered writes are
diff --git a/Documentation/gpio.txt b/Documentation/gpio.txt
index d96a6dba5748..9633da01ff46 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpio.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gpio.txt
@@ -109,17 +109,19 @@ use numbers 2000-2063 to identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders.
109 109
110If you want to initialize a structure with an invalid GPIO number, use 110If you want to initialize a structure with an invalid GPIO number, use
111some negative number (perhaps "-EINVAL"); that will never be valid. To 111some negative number (perhaps "-EINVAL"); that will never be valid. To
112test if a number could reference a GPIO, you may use this predicate: 112test if such number from such a structure could reference a GPIO, you
113may use this predicate:
113 114
114 int gpio_is_valid(int number); 115 int gpio_is_valid(int number);
115 116
116A number that's not valid will be rejected by calls which may request 117A number that's not valid will be rejected by calls which may request
117or free GPIOs (see below). Other numbers may also be rejected; for 118or free GPIOs (see below). Other numbers may also be rejected; for
118example, a number might be valid but unused on a given board. 119example, a number might be valid but temporarily unused on a given board.
119
120Whether a platform supports multiple GPIO controllers is currently a
121platform-specific implementation issue.
122 120
121Whether a platform supports multiple GPIO controllers is a platform-specific
122implementation issue, as are whether that support can leave "holes" in the space
123of GPIO numbers, and whether new controllers can be added at runtime. Such issues
124can affect things including whether adjacent GPIO numbers are both valid.
123 125
124Using GPIOs 126Using GPIOs
125----------- 127-----------
@@ -480,12 +482,16 @@ To support this framework, a platform's Kconfig will "select" either
480ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB or ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB 482ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB or ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB
481and arrange that its <asm/gpio.h> includes <asm-generic/gpio.h> and defines 483and arrange that its <asm/gpio.h> includes <asm-generic/gpio.h> and defines
482three functions: gpio_get_value(), gpio_set_value(), and gpio_cansleep(). 484three functions: gpio_get_value(), gpio_set_value(), and gpio_cansleep().
483They may also want to provide a custom value for ARCH_NR_GPIOS.
484 485
485ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB means that the gpio-lib code will always get compiled 486It may also provide a custom value for ARCH_NR_GPIOS, so that it better
487reflects the number of GPIOs in actual use on that platform, without
488wasting static table space. (It should count both built-in/SoC GPIOs and
489also ones on GPIO expanders.
490
491ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB means that the gpiolib code will always get compiled
486into the kernel on that architecture. 492into the kernel on that architecture.
487 493
488ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB means the gpio-lib code defaults to off and the user 494ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB means the gpiolib code defaults to off and the user
489can enable it and build it into the kernel optionally. 495can enable it and build it into the kernel optionally.
490 496
491If neither of these options are selected, the platform does not support 497If neither of these options are selected, the platform does not support
diff --git a/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface b/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface
index ff45d1f837c8..48ceabedf55d 100644
--- a/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface
+++ b/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface
@@ -91,12 +91,11 @@ name The chip name.
91 I2C devices get this attribute created automatically. 91 I2C devices get this attribute created automatically.
92 RO 92 RO
93 93
94update_rate The rate at which the chip will update readings. 94update_interval The interval at which the chip will update readings.
95 Unit: millisecond 95 Unit: millisecond
96 RW 96 RW
97 Some devices have a variable update rate. This attribute 97 Some devices have a variable update rate or interval.
98 can be used to change the update rate to the desired 98 This attribute can be used to change it to the desired value.
99 frequency.
100 99
101 100
102************ 101************
diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
index 27a52b35d55b..3d8a97747f77 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
@@ -345,5 +345,10 @@ documentation, in <filename>, for the functions listed.
345section titled <section title> from <filename>. 345section titled <section title> from <filename>.
346Spaces are allowed in <section title>; do not quote the <section title>. 346Spaces are allowed in <section title>; do not quote the <section title>.
347 347
348!C<filename> is replaced by nothing, but makes the tools check that
349all DOC: sections and documented functions, symbols, etc. are used.
350This makes sense to use when you use !F/!P only and want to verify
351that all documentation is included.
352
348Tim. 353Tim.
349*/ <twaugh@redhat.com> 354*/ <twaugh@redhat.com>
diff --git a/Documentation/mutex-design.txt b/Documentation/mutex-design.txt
index c91ccc0720fa..38c10fd7f411 100644
--- a/Documentation/mutex-design.txt
+++ b/Documentation/mutex-design.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ firstly, there's nothing wrong with semaphores. But if the simpler
9mutex semantics are sufficient for your code, then there are a couple 9mutex semantics are sufficient for your code, then there are a couple
10of advantages of mutexes: 10of advantages of mutexes:
11 11
12 - 'struct mutex' is smaller on most architectures: .e.g on x86, 12 - 'struct mutex' is smaller on most architectures: E.g. on x86,
13 'struct semaphore' is 20 bytes, 'struct mutex' is 16 bytes. 13 'struct semaphore' is 20 bytes, 'struct mutex' is 16 bytes.
14 A smaller structure size means less RAM footprint, and better 14 A smaller structure size means less RAM footprint, and better
15 CPU-cache utilization. 15 CPU-cache utilization.
@@ -136,3 +136,4 @@ the APIs of 'struct mutex' have been streamlined:
136 void mutex_lock_nested(struct mutex *lock, unsigned int subclass); 136 void mutex_lock_nested(struct mutex *lock, unsigned int subclass);
137 int mutex_lock_interruptible_nested(struct mutex *lock, 137 int mutex_lock_interruptible_nested(struct mutex *lock,
138 unsigned int subclass); 138 unsigned int subclass);
139 int atomic_dec_and_mutex_lock(atomic_t *cnt, struct mutex *lock);
diff --git a/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt b/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt
index 9363e056188a..8ed17587a74b 100644
--- a/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt
+++ b/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ regulators (where voltage output is controllable) and current sinks (where
13current limit is controllable). 13current limit is controllable).
14 14
15(C) 2008 Wolfson Microelectronics PLC. 15(C) 2008 Wolfson Microelectronics PLC.
16Author: Liam Girdwood <lg@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com> 16Author: Liam Girdwood <lrg@slimlogic.co.uk>
17 17
18 18
19Nomenclature 19Nomenclature
diff --git a/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt b/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt
index ce46fa1e643e..37c6aad5e590 100644
--- a/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt
@@ -296,6 +296,7 @@ Conexant 5051
296Conexant 5066 296Conexant 5066
297============= 297=============
298 laptop Basic Laptop config (default) 298 laptop Basic Laptop config (default)
299 hp-laptop HP laptops, e g G60
299 dell-laptop Dell laptops 300 dell-laptop Dell laptops
300 dell-vostro Dell Vostro 301 dell-vostro Dell Vostro
301 olpc-xo-1_5 OLPC XO 1.5 302 olpc-xo-1_5 OLPC XO 1.5
diff --git a/Documentation/workqueue.txt b/Documentation/workqueue.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e4498a2872c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/workqueue.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,380 @@
1
2Concurrency Managed Workqueue (cmwq)
3
4September, 2010 Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
5 Florian Mickler <florian@mickler.org>
6
7CONTENTS
8
91. Introduction
102. Why cmwq?
113. The Design
124. Application Programming Interface (API)
135. Example Execution Scenarios
146. Guidelines
15
16
171. Introduction
18
19There are many cases where an asynchronous process execution context
20is needed and the workqueue (wq) API is the most commonly used
21mechanism for such cases.
22
23When such an asynchronous execution context is needed, a work item
24describing which function to execute is put on a queue. An
25independent thread serves as the asynchronous execution context. The
26queue is called workqueue and the thread is called worker.
27
28While there are work items on the workqueue the worker executes the
29functions associated with the work items one after the other. When
30there is no work item left on the workqueue the worker becomes idle.
31When a new work item gets queued, the worker begins executing again.
32
33
342. Why cmwq?
35
36In the original wq implementation, a multi threaded (MT) wq had one
37worker thread per CPU and a single threaded (ST) wq had one worker
38thread system-wide. A single MT wq needed to keep around the same
39number of workers as the number of CPUs. The kernel grew a lot of MT
40wq users over the years and with the number of CPU cores continuously
41rising, some systems saturated the default 32k PID space just booting
42up.
43
44Although MT wq wasted a lot of resource, the level of concurrency
45provided was unsatisfactory. The limitation was common to both ST and
46MT wq albeit less severe on MT. Each wq maintained its own separate
47worker pool. A MT wq could provide only one execution context per CPU
48while a ST wq one for the whole system. Work items had to compete for
49those very limited execution contexts leading to various problems
50including proneness to deadlocks around the single execution context.
51
52The tension between the provided level of concurrency and resource
53usage also forced its users to make unnecessary tradeoffs like libata
54choosing to use ST wq for polling PIOs and accepting an unnecessary
55limitation that no two polling PIOs can progress at the same time. As
56MT wq don't provide much better concurrency, users which require
57higher level of concurrency, like async or fscache, had to implement
58their own thread pool.
59
60Concurrency Managed Workqueue (cmwq) is a reimplementation of wq with
61focus on the following goals.
62
63* Maintain compatibility with the original workqueue API.
64
65* Use per-CPU unified worker pools shared by all wq to provide
66 flexible level of concurrency on demand without wasting a lot of
67 resource.
68
69* Automatically regulate worker pool and level of concurrency so that
70 the API users don't need to worry about such details.
71
72
733. The Design
74
75In order to ease the asynchronous execution of functions a new
76abstraction, the work item, is introduced.
77
78A work item is a simple struct that holds a pointer to the function
79that is to be executed asynchronously. Whenever a driver or subsystem
80wants a function to be executed asynchronously it has to set up a work
81item pointing to that function and queue that work item on a
82workqueue.
83
84Special purpose threads, called worker threads, execute the functions
85off of the queue, one after the other. If no work is queued, the
86worker threads become idle. These worker threads are managed in so
87called thread-pools.
88
89The cmwq design differentiates between the user-facing workqueues that
90subsystems and drivers queue work items on and the backend mechanism
91which manages thread-pool and processes the queued work items.
92
93The backend is called gcwq. There is one gcwq for each possible CPU
94and one gcwq to serve work items queued on unbound workqueues.
95
96Subsystems and drivers can create and queue work items through special
97workqueue API functions as they see fit. They can influence some
98aspects of the way the work items are executed by setting flags on the
99workqueue they are putting the work item on. These flags include
100things like CPU locality, reentrancy, concurrency limits and more. To
101get a detailed overview refer to the API description of
102alloc_workqueue() below.
103
104When a work item is queued to a workqueue, the target gcwq is
105determined according to the queue parameters and workqueue attributes
106and appended on the shared worklist of the gcwq. For example, unless
107specifically overridden, a work item of a bound workqueue will be
108queued on the worklist of exactly that gcwq that is associated to the
109CPU the issuer is running on.
110
111For any worker pool implementation, managing the concurrency level
112(how many execution contexts are active) is an important issue. cmwq
113tries to keep the concurrency at a minimal but sufficient level.
114Minimal to save resources and sufficient in that the system is used at
115its full capacity.
116
117Each gcwq bound to an actual CPU implements concurrency management by
118hooking into the scheduler. The gcwq is notified whenever an active
119worker wakes up or sleeps and keeps track of the number of the
120currently runnable workers. Generally, work items are not expected to
121hog a CPU and consume many cycles. That means maintaining just enough
122concurrency to prevent work processing from stalling should be
123optimal. As long as there are one or more runnable workers on the
124CPU, the gcwq doesn't start execution of a new work, but, when the
125last running worker goes to sleep, it immediately schedules a new
126worker so that the CPU doesn't sit idle while there are pending work
127items. This allows using a minimal number of workers without losing
128execution bandwidth.
129
130Keeping idle workers around doesn't cost other than the memory space
131for kthreads, so cmwq holds onto idle ones for a while before killing
132them.
133
134For an unbound wq, the above concurrency management doesn't apply and
135the gcwq for the pseudo unbound CPU tries to start executing all work
136items as soon as possible. The responsibility of regulating
137concurrency level is on the users. There is also a flag to mark a
138bound wq to ignore the concurrency management. Please refer to the
139API section for details.
140
141Forward progress guarantee relies on that workers can be created when
142more execution contexts are necessary, which in turn is guaranteed
143through the use of rescue workers. All work items which might be used
144on code paths that handle memory reclaim are required to be queued on
145wq's that have a rescue-worker reserved for execution under memory
146pressure. Else it is possible that the thread-pool deadlocks waiting
147for execution contexts to free up.
148
149
1504. Application Programming Interface (API)
151
152alloc_workqueue() allocates a wq. The original create_*workqueue()
153functions are deprecated and scheduled for removal. alloc_workqueue()
154takes three arguments - @name, @flags and @max_active. @name is the
155name of the wq and also used as the name of the rescuer thread if
156there is one.
157
158A wq no longer manages execution resources but serves as a domain for
159forward progress guarantee, flush and work item attributes. @flags
160and @max_active control how work items are assigned execution
161resources, scheduled and executed.
162
163@flags:
164
165 WQ_NON_REENTRANT
166
167 By default, a wq guarantees non-reentrance only on the same
168 CPU. A work item may not be executed concurrently on the same
169 CPU by multiple workers but is allowed to be executed
170 concurrently on multiple CPUs. This flag makes sure
171 non-reentrance is enforced across all CPUs. Work items queued
172 to a non-reentrant wq are guaranteed to be executed by at most
173 one worker system-wide at any given time.
174
175 WQ_UNBOUND
176
177 Work items queued to an unbound wq are served by a special
178 gcwq which hosts workers which are not bound to any specific
179 CPU. This makes the wq behave as a simple execution context
180 provider without concurrency management. The unbound gcwq
181 tries to start execution of work items as soon as possible.
182 Unbound wq sacrifices locality but is useful for the following
183 cases.
184
185 * Wide fluctuation in the concurrency level requirement is
186 expected and using bound wq may end up creating large number
187 of mostly unused workers across different CPUs as the issuer
188 hops through different CPUs.
189
190 * Long running CPU intensive workloads which can be better
191 managed by the system scheduler.
192
193 WQ_FREEZEABLE
194
195 A freezeable wq participates in the freeze phase of the system
196 suspend operations. Work items on the wq are drained and no
197 new work item starts execution until thawed.
198
199 WQ_RESCUER
200
201 All wq which might be used in the memory reclaim paths _MUST_
202 have this flag set. This reserves one worker exclusively for
203 the execution of this wq under memory pressure.
204
205 WQ_HIGHPRI
206
207 Work items of a highpri wq are queued at the head of the
208 worklist of the target gcwq and start execution regardless of
209 the current concurrency level. In other words, highpri work
210 items will always start execution as soon as execution
211 resource is available.
212
213 Ordering among highpri work items is preserved - a highpri
214 work item queued after another highpri work item will start
215 execution after the earlier highpri work item starts.
216
217 Although highpri work items are not held back by other
218 runnable work items, they still contribute to the concurrency
219 level. Highpri work items in runnable state will prevent
220 non-highpri work items from starting execution.
221
222 This flag is meaningless for unbound wq.
223
224 WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE
225
226 Work items of a CPU intensive wq do not contribute to the
227 concurrency level. In other words, runnable CPU intensive
228 work items will not prevent other work items from starting
229 execution. This is useful for bound work items which are
230 expected to hog CPU cycles so that their execution is
231 regulated by the system scheduler.
232
233 Although CPU intensive work items don't contribute to the
234 concurrency level, start of their executions is still
235 regulated by the concurrency management and runnable
236 non-CPU-intensive work items can delay execution of CPU
237 intensive work items.
238
239 This flag is meaningless for unbound wq.
240
241 WQ_HIGHPRI | WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE
242
243 This combination makes the wq avoid interaction with
244 concurrency management completely and behave as a simple
245 per-CPU execution context provider. Work items queued on a
246 highpri CPU-intensive wq start execution as soon as resources
247 are available and don't affect execution of other work items.
248
249@max_active:
250
251@max_active determines the maximum number of execution contexts per
252CPU which can be assigned to the work items of a wq. For example,
253with @max_active of 16, at most 16 work items of the wq can be
254executing at the same time per CPU.
255
256Currently, for a bound wq, the maximum limit for @max_active is 512
257and the default value used when 0 is specified is 256. For an unbound
258wq, the limit is higher of 512 and 4 * num_possible_cpus(). These
259values are chosen sufficiently high such that they are not the
260limiting factor while providing protection in runaway cases.
261
262The number of active work items of a wq is usually regulated by the
263users of the wq, more specifically, by how many work items the users
264may queue at the same time. Unless there is a specific need for
265throttling the number of active work items, specifying '0' is
266recommended.
267
268Some users depend on the strict execution ordering of ST wq. The
269combination of @max_active of 1 and WQ_UNBOUND is used to achieve this
270behavior. Work items on such wq are always queued to the unbound gcwq
271and only one work item can be active at any given time thus achieving
272the same ordering property as ST wq.
273
274
2755. Example Execution Scenarios
276
277The following example execution scenarios try to illustrate how cmwq
278behave under different configurations.
279
280 Work items w0, w1, w2 are queued to a bound wq q0 on the same CPU.
281 w0 burns CPU for 5ms then sleeps for 10ms then burns CPU for 5ms
282 again before finishing. w1 and w2 burn CPU for 5ms then sleep for
283 10ms.
284
285Ignoring all other tasks, works and processing overhead, and assuming
286simple FIFO scheduling, the following is one highly simplified version
287of possible sequences of events with the original wq.
288
289 TIME IN MSECS EVENT
290 0 w0 starts and burns CPU
291 5 w0 sleeps
292 15 w0 wakes up and burns CPU
293 20 w0 finishes
294 20 w1 starts and burns CPU
295 25 w1 sleeps
296 35 w1 wakes up and finishes
297 35 w2 starts and burns CPU
298 40 w2 sleeps
299 50 w2 wakes up and finishes
300
301And with cmwq with @max_active >= 3,
302
303 TIME IN MSECS EVENT
304 0 w0 starts and burns CPU
305 5 w0 sleeps
306 5 w1 starts and burns CPU
307 10 w1 sleeps
308 10 w2 starts and burns CPU
309 15 w2 sleeps
310 15 w0 wakes up and burns CPU
311 20 w0 finishes
312 20 w1 wakes up and finishes
313 25 w2 wakes up and finishes
314
315If @max_active == 2,
316
317 TIME IN MSECS EVENT
318 0 w0 starts and burns CPU
319 5 w0 sleeps
320 5 w1 starts and burns CPU
321 10 w1 sleeps
322 15 w0 wakes up and burns CPU
323 20 w0 finishes
324 20 w1 wakes up and finishes
325 20 w2 starts and burns CPU
326 25 w2 sleeps
327 35 w2 wakes up and finishes
328
329Now, let's assume w1 and w2 are queued to a different wq q1 which has
330WQ_HIGHPRI set,
331
332 TIME IN MSECS EVENT
333 0 w1 and w2 start and burn CPU
334 5 w1 sleeps
335 10 w2 sleeps
336 10 w0 starts and burns CPU
337 15 w0 sleeps
338 15 w1 wakes up and finishes
339 20 w2 wakes up and finishes
340 25 w0 wakes up and burns CPU
341 30 w0 finishes
342
343If q1 has WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE set,
344
345 TIME IN MSECS EVENT
346 0 w0 starts and burns CPU
347 5 w0 sleeps
348 5 w1 and w2 start and burn CPU
349 10 w1 sleeps
350 15 w2 sleeps
351 15 w0 wakes up and burns CPU
352 20 w0 finishes
353 20 w1 wakes up and finishes
354 25 w2 wakes up and finishes
355
356
3576. Guidelines
358
359* Do not forget to use WQ_RESCUER if a wq may process work items which
360 are used during memory reclaim. Each wq with WQ_RESCUER set has one
361 rescuer thread reserved for it. If there is dependency among
362 multiple work items used during memory reclaim, they should be
363 queued to separate wq each with WQ_RESCUER.
364
365* Unless strict ordering is required, there is no need to use ST wq.
366
367* Unless there is a specific need, using 0 for @max_active is
368 recommended. In most use cases, concurrency level usually stays
369 well under the default limit.
370
371* A wq serves as a domain for forward progress guarantee (WQ_RESCUER),
372 flush and work item attributes. Work items which are not involved
373 in memory reclaim and don't need to be flushed as a part of a group
374 of work items, and don't require any special attribute, can use one
375 of the system wq. There is no difference in execution
376 characteristics between using a dedicated wq and a system wq.
377
378* Unless work items are expected to consume a huge amount of CPU
379 cycles, using a bound wq is usually beneficial due to the increased
380 level of locality in wq operations and work item execution.