linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/4] replace system_wq with system_percpu_wq, added WQ_PERCPU to alloc

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <wmsyc3b55efl6wiouxtk6bqwdfeqso35ngv7aaqi6es7vph5xj@u5rwq6cggp6s>
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2025 14:08:49 -0800
From: Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@...il.com>
To: Marco Crivellari <marco.crivellari@...e.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, 
	Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@...il.com>, Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@...nel.org>, 
	Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/4] replace system_wq with system_percpu_wq, added
 WQ_PERCPU to alloc_workqueue

Hi Marco,

On Wed, Nov 05, 2025 at 11:35:19AM +0100, Marco Crivellari wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> === Current situation: problems ===
> 
> Let's consider a nohz_full system with isolated CPUs: wq_unbound_cpumask is
> set to the housekeeping CPUs, for !WQ_UNBOUND the local CPU is selected.
> 
> This leads to different scenarios if a work item is scheduled on an
> isolated CPU where "delay" value is 0 or greater then 0:
>         schedule_delayed_work(, 0);
> 
> This will be handled by __queue_work() that will queue the work item on the
> current local (isolated) CPU, while:
> 
>         schedule_delayed_work(, 1);
> 
> Will move the timer on an housekeeping CPU, and schedule the work there.
> 
> Currently if a user enqueue a work item using schedule_delayed_work() the
> used wq is "system_wq" (per-cpu wq) while queue_delayed_work() use
> WORK_CPU_UNBOUND (used when a cpu is not specified). The same applies to
> schedule_work() that is using system_wq and queue_work(), that makes use
> again of WORK_CPU_UNBOUND.
> 
> This lack of consistency cannot be addressed without refactoring the API.
> 
> === Recent changes to the WQ API ===
> 
> The following, address the recent changes in the Workqueue API:
> 
> - commit 128ea9f6ccfb ("workqueue: Add system_percpu_wq and system_dfl_wq")
> - commit 930c2ea566af ("workqueue: Add new WQ_PERCPU flag")
> 
> The old workqueues will be removed in a future release cycle.
> 
> === Introduced Changes by this series ===
> 
> 1) [P 1-2-3]  Replace uses of system_wq and system_unbound_wq
> 
>     system_wq is a per-CPU workqueue, but his name is not clear.
> 
>     Because of that, system_wq has been replaced with system_percpu_wq.
> 
> 2) [P 4] add WQ_PERCPU to alloc_workqueue()
> 
>     This change adds a new WQ_PERCPU flag to explicitly request
>     alloc_workqueue() to be per-cpu when WQ_UNBOUND has not been specified.

So neither of these 4 need percpu workqueue and instead are fine to use
"whatever is free". Maybe we can switch them to use unbound workqueues
instead?

Thanks.

-- 
Dmitry