Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] replace system_wq with system_dfl_wq, add WQ_UNBOUND to alloc_workqueue

From: Dmitry Torokhov

Date: Thu Dec 18 2025 - 23:54:25 EST


On Thu, Nov 06, 2025 at 03:19:51PM +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
>
> system_wq is a per-CPU workqueue, these workloads do not benefit
> from locality, so change the the workqueue with the unbound,
> system_dfl_wq.
>
> 2) [P 4] add WQ_UNBOUND to alloc_workqueue()
>
> alloc_workqueue() users must specify one among WQ_PERCPU or WQ_UNBOUND.
> This workload does not benefit from a per-cpu workqueue, so make the
> custom wq unbound with WQ_UNBOUND.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - all the patches use system_dfl_wq and the custom wq is now unbound,
> using explicitly WQ_UNBOUND.
>
> Marco Crivellari (4):
> Input: gpio_keys - replace use of system_wq with system_dfl_wq
> Input: palmas-pwrbutton - replace use of system_wq with system_dfl_wq
> Input: mouse - replace use of system_wq with system_dfl_wq
> Input: psmouse-smbus - add WQ_UNBOUND to alloc_workqueue user
>
> drivers/input/keyboard/gpio_keys.c | 2 +-
> drivers/input/misc/palmas-pwrbutton.c | 2 +-
> drivers/input/mouse/psmouse-smbus.c | 2 +-
> drivers/input/mouse/synaptics_i2c.c | 8 ++++----
> 4 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
>

Applied the lot, thank you.

--
Dmitry