[PATCH v2 0/1] ASoC: change system_wq with system_dfl_wq

From: Marco Crivellari

Date: Mon Sep 29 2025 - 11:51:13 EST


Hi!

Below is a summary of a discussion about the Workqueue API and cpu isolation
considerations. Details and more information are available here:

"workqueue: Always use wq_select_unbound_cpu() for WORK_CPU_UNBOUND."
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250221112003.1dSuoGyc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/

=== 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 consistentcy cannot be addressed without refactoring the API.

=== Plan and future plans ===

This patchset is the first stone on a refactoring needed in order to
address the points aforementioned; it will have a positive impact also
on the cpu isolation, in the long term, moving away percpu workqueue in
favor to an unbound model.

These are the main steps:
1) API refactoring (that this patch is introducing)
- Make more clear and uniform the system wq names, both per-cpu and
unbound. This to avoid any possible confusion on what should be
used.

- Introduction of WQ_PERCPU: this flag is the complement of WQ_UNBOUND,
introduced in this patchset and used on all the callers that are not
currently using WQ_UNBOUND.

WQ_UNBOUND will be removed in a future release cycle.

Most users don't need to be per-cpu, because they don't have
locality requirements, because of that, a next future step will be
make "unbound" the default behavior.

2) Check who really needs to be per-cpu
- Remove the WQ_PERCPU flag when is not strictly required.

3) Add a new API (prefer local cpu)
- There are users that don't require a local execution, like mentioned
above; despite that, local execution yeld to performance gain.

This new API will prefer the local execution, without requiring it.

=== Introduced Changes by this series ===

1) [P 1] Replace use of system_wq
system_wq is a per-CPU worqueue, replaced by system_percpu_wq. Despite that,
system_wq in this change has been replaced by system_dfl_wq, because there
aren't per-cpu variables.


Thanks!


---
Changes in v2:

- Removed 1/2 from the series because already applied
- Instead of rename system_wq with system_percpu_wq, [P 1] change the workqueue
using system_dfl_wq (the new unbound workqueue).


Marco Crivellari (1):
ASoC: replace use of system_wq with system_dfl_wq

sound/soc/codecs/aw88081.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/aw88166.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/aw88261.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/aw88395/aw88395.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/aw88399.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/cs42l43-jack.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/codecs/cs42l43.c | 4 ++--
sound/soc/codecs/es8326.c | 12 ++++++------
sound/soc/codecs/rt5663.c | 6 +++---
sound/soc/intel/boards/sof_es8336.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/sof/intel/cnl.c | 2 +-
sound/soc/sof/intel/hda-ipc.c | 2 +-
12 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

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2.51.0