Re: [patch 128/197] freezer: add try_to_freeze calls to all kernel threads

From: Pavel Machek
Date: Wed May 09 2007 - 06:50:17 EST


Hi!

> > Add try_to_freeze() calls to the remaining kernel threads that do not call
> > try_to_freeze() already, although they set PF_NOFREEZE.
> >
> > In the future we are going to replace PF_NOFREEZE with a set of flags that
> > will be set to indicate in which situations the task should not be frozen (for
> > example, there can be a task that should be frozen for the CPU hotplugging and
> > should not be frozen for the system suspend). For this reason every kernel
> > thread should be able to freeze itself (ie. call try_to_freeze()), so that it
> > can be frozen whenever necessary.
>
> A few questions:
>
> Does try_to_freeze()'s kerneldoc document that try_to_freeze() is a
> no-op sometimes but should nevertheless be called for this and that
> reason? (I don't know the entire patch series.)
>
> Why add no-op-try_to_freeze() everywhere now, instead of adding it later
> when it will actually be needed? (I.e. "in the future".)

It is needed later in the patch series... for kprobes, etc.

> Can we please have a future where no device driver has to care if and
> when and how to freeze its threads?

No. Freezing is useful for kprobes/cpu hotplug as well as suspend.
Pavel
--
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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