[RFC PATCH v2 0/1] pipe: only enable the extra wake_up(rd_wait) for edge-triggered consumers

From: Oleg Nesterov

Date: Mon Jul 27 2026 - 08:26:51 EST


pipe_poll() unconditionally sets poll_usage on the first call, forcing
anon_pipe_write() to wake up readers on every write even if the pipe was
not empty. But this is only needed for edge-triggered consumers: epoll
with EPOLLET and io_uring without (unsupported) IORING_POLL_ADD_LEVEL.
poll() and select() users pay for it for no reason.

Change pipe_poll() to set ->pipe_usage only if wait->_key & EPOLLET is
true, this check should catch both users.

While at it, add READ_ONCE() in anon_pipe_write() to pair with WRITE_ONCE()
in pipe_poll().

Test-case for epoll:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/epoll.h>
#include <assert.h>

int main(void)
{
int pfd[2], efd;
struct epoll_event evt = { .events = EPOLLIN | EPOLLET };

pipe(pfd);
efd = epoll_create1(0);
epoll_ctl(efd, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, pfd[0], &evt);

for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
write(pfd[1], "", 1);
assert(epoll_wait(efd, &evt, 1, 0) == 1);
}

return 0;
}

Test-case for io_uring:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/epoll.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <linux/io_uring.h>
#include <assert.h>

int main(void)
{
struct io_uring_params p = {};
int fd, pfd[2];

pipe(pfd);

fd = syscall(SYS_io_uring_setup, 2, &p);
assert(fd >= 0);

void *ring = mmap(0, p.cq_off.cqes + p.cq_entries * sizeof(struct io_uring_cqe),
PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, IORING_OFF_SQ_RING);
assert(ring != MAP_FAILED);
*(unsigned *)(ring + p.sq_off.tail) = 1;

struct io_uring_sqe *sqes = mmap(0, p.sq_entries * sizeof(*sqes),
PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, IORING_OFF_SQES);
assert(sqes != MAP_FAILED);
sqes[0].opcode = IORING_OP_POLL_ADD;
sqes[0].fd = pfd[0];
sqes[0].len = IORING_POLL_ADD_MULTI;
sqes[0].poll32_events = EPOLLIN;

syscall(SYS_io_uring_enter, fd, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);

unsigned *cq_head = ring + p.cq_off.head;
unsigned *cq_tail = ring + p.cq_off.tail;
for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
write(pfd[1], "", 1);
syscall(SYS_io_uring_enter, fd, 0, 0, IORING_ENTER_GETEVENTS, 0, 0);
assert(*cq_tail == ++*cq_head);
}

return 0;
}

Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/pipe.c | 7 ++++---
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/pipe.c b/fs/pipe.c
index 429b0714ec57..98b1e2385103 100644
--- a/fs/pipe.c
+++ b/fs/pipe.c
@@ -689,7 +689,7 @@ anon_pipe_write(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *from)
* Epoll nonsensically wants a wakeup whether the pipe
* was already empty or not.
*/
- if (was_empty || pipe->poll_usage)
+ if (was_empty || READ_ONCE(pipe->poll_usage))
wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll(&pipe->rd_wait, EPOLLIN | EPOLLRDNORM);
kill_fasync(&pipe->fasync_readers, SIGIO, POLL_IN);
if (wake_next_writer)
@@ -752,7 +752,6 @@ static long pipe_ioctl(struct file *filp, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg)
}
}

-/* No kernel lock held - fine */
static __poll_t
pipe_poll(struct file *filp, poll_table *wait)
{
@@ -761,7 +760,9 @@ pipe_poll(struct file *filp, poll_table *wait)
union pipe_index idx;

/* Epoll has some historical nasty semantics, this enables them */
- if (unlikely(!READ_ONCE(pipe->poll_usage)))
+ if ((filp->f_mode & FMODE_READ) &&
+ wait && (wait->_key & EPOLLET) &&
+ unlikely(!READ_ONCE(pipe->poll_usage)))
WRITE_ONCE(pipe->poll_usage, true);

/*
--
2.52.0