linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH v2 1/2] printk: Make printk() completely async

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Date:	Mon, 7 Mar 2016 10:42:27 -0500
From:	Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>
To:	Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
Cc:	Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky.work@...il.com>,
	Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@...ove.SAKURA.ne.jp>,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, jack@...e.com, pmladek@...e.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, sergey.senozhatsky@...il.com
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH v2 1/2] printk: Make printk() completely async

Hello,

On Mon, Mar 07, 2016 at 09:22:30AM +0100, Jan Kara wrote:
> > > I don't know what MAYDAY is. I'm talking about a situation where printing_work
> > > work item is not processed (i.e. printing_work_func() is not called) until
> > > current work item calls schedule_timeout_*().

That was because the work item was percpu and not marked
CPU_INTENSIVE.  Either using an unbound or CPU_INTENSIVE workqueue
should be enough.

> > > We had a problem that since vmstat_work work item was using system_wq,
> > > vmstat_work work item was not processed (i.e. vmstat_update() was not called) if
> > > kworker was looping inside memory allocator without calling schedule_timeout_*()
> > > due to disk_events_workfn() doing GFP_NOIO allocation).
> > 
> > hm, just for note, none of system-wide wqs seem to have a ->rescuer thread
> > (WQ_MEM_RECLAIM).

Because WQ_MEM_RECLAIM only guarantees concurrency of 1, it doesn't
make sense to set it to a shared workqueue.  A dedicated workquee
should be created per domain which needs forward progress guarantee.

> > hm. yes, seems that it may take some time until workqueue wakeup() a ->rescuer thread.
> > need to look more.
> 
> Yes, it takes some time (0.1s or 2 jiffies) before workqueue code gives up
> creating a worker process and wakes up rescuer thread. However I don't see
> that as a problem...

I don't think it matters.  At that point, the system should already be
thrashing heavily and everything is crawling anyway.  A couple jiffies
delay isn't gonna be noticeable.

Thanks.

-- 
tejun