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.
alloc_workqueue() treats all queues as per-CPU by default, while unbound
workqueues must opt-in via WQ_UNBOUND.
This default is suboptimal: most workloads benefit from unbound queues,
allowing the scheduler to place worker threads where they’re needed and
reducing noise when CPUs are isolated.
This change adds a new WQ_PERCPU flag at the network subsystem, to explicitly
request the use of the per-CPU behavior. Both flags coexist for one release
cycle to allow callers to transition their calls.
Once migration is complete, WQ_UNBOUND can be removed and unbound will
become the implicit default.
With the introduction of the WQ_PERCPU flag (equivalent to !WQ_UNBOUND),
any alloc_workqueue() caller that doesn’t explicitly specify WQ_UNBOUND
must now use WQ_PERCPU.
All existing users have been updated accordingly.
Suggested-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Marco Crivellari <marco.crivellari@suse.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20250918142427.309519-4-marco.crivellari@suse.com
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
27ce71e1ce