linux-kernel - [PATCH] workqueue: add CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_WQ_STALL

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Message-Id: <20260203-workqueue-v1-1-ccf163b83187@debian.org>
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2026 09:01:17 -0800
From: Breno Leitao <leitao@...ian.org>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, 
 Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@...il.com>, 
 Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc: linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
 lirongqing@...du.com, rneu@...a.com, kernel-team@...a.com, 
 Breno Leitao <leitao@...ian.org>
Subject: [PATCH] workqueue: add CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_WQ_STALL_PANIC option

Add a kernel config option to set the default value of
workqueue.panic_on_stall, similar to CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_SOFTLOCKUP_PANIC,
CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_HARDLOCKUP_PANIC and CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_HUNG_TASK_PANIC.

This allows setting the number of workqueue stalls before triggering
a kernel panic at build time, which is useful for high-availability
systems that need consistent panic-on-stall, in other words, those
servers which run with CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_*_PANIC=y already.

The default remains 0 (disabled). Setting it to 1 will panic on the
first stall, and higher values will panic after that many stall
warnings. The value can still be overridden at runtime via the
workqueue.panic_on_stall boot parameter or sysfs.

Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@...ian.org>
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt |  3 ++-
 kernel/workqueue.c                              |  2 +-
 lib/Kconfig.debug                               | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 1058f2a6d6a8c..85a6d0e410213 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -8371,7 +8371,8 @@ Kernel parameters
 			CONFIG_WQ_WATCHDOG. It sets the number times of the
 			stall to trigger panic.
 
-			The default is 0, which disables the panic on stall.
+			The default is set by CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_WQ_STALL_PANIC,
+			which is 0 (disabled) if not configured.
 
 	workqueue.cpu_intensive_thresh_us=
 			Per-cpu work items which run for longer than this
diff --git a/kernel/workqueue.c b/kernel/workqueue.c
index 253311af47c6d..606f933665767 100644
--- a/kernel/workqueue.c
+++ b/kernel/workqueue.c
@@ -7505,7 +7505,7 @@ static struct timer_list wq_watchdog_timer;
 static unsigned long wq_watchdog_touched = INITIAL_JIFFIES;
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(unsigned long, wq_watchdog_touched_cpu) = INITIAL_JIFFIES;
 
-static unsigned int wq_panic_on_stall;
+static unsigned int wq_panic_on_stall = CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_WQ_STALL_PANIC;
 module_param_named(panic_on_stall, wq_panic_on_stall, uint, 0644);
 
 /*
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index ba36939fda79b..ce25a8faf6e9e 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -1297,6 +1297,29 @@ config WQ_WATCHDOG
 	  state.  This can be configured through kernel parameter
 	  "workqueue.watchdog_thresh" and its sysfs counterpart.
 
+config BOOTPARAM_WQ_STALL_PANIC
+	int "Panic on Nth workqueue stall"
+	default 0
+	range 0 100
+	depends on WQ_WATCHDOG
+	help
+	  Set the number of workqueue stalls to trigger a kernel panic.
+	  A workqueue stall occurs when a worker pool doesn't make forward
+	  progress on a pending work item for over 30 seconds (configurable
+	  using the workqueue.watchdog_thresh parameter).
+
+	  If n = 0, the kernel will not panic on stall. If n > 0, the kernel
+	  will panic after n stall warnings.
+
+	  The panic can be used in combination with panic_timeout,
+	  to cause the system to reboot automatically after a
+	  stall has been detected. This feature is useful for
+	  high-availability systems that have uptime guarantees and
+	  where a stall must be resolved ASAP.
+
+	  This setting can be overridden at runtime via the
+	  workqueue.panic_on_stall kernel parameter.
+
 config WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE_REPORT
 	bool "Report per-cpu work items which hog CPU for too long"
 	depends on DEBUG_KERNEL

---
base-commit: 6bd9ed02871f22beb0e50690b0c3caf457104f7c
change-id: 20260203-workqueue-d94b72f62dac

Best regards,
--  
Breno Leitao <leitao@...ian.org>