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-rw-r--r--include/linux/workqueue.h27
1 files changed, 27 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/include/linux/workqueue.h b/include/linux/workqueue.h
index 623488fdc1f5..fc0136b604f2 100644
--- a/include/linux/workqueue.h
+++ b/include/linux/workqueue.h
@@ -303,6 +303,33 @@ enum {
WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE = 1 << 5, /* cpu instensive workqueue */
WQ_SYSFS = 1 << 6, /* visible in sysfs, see wq_sysfs_register() */
+ /*
+ * Per-cpu workqueues are generally preferred because they tend to
+ * show better performance thanks to cache locality. Per-cpu
+ * workqueues exclude the scheduler from choosing the CPU to
+ * execute the worker threads, which has an unfortunate side effect
+ * of increasing power consumption.
+ *
+ * The scheduler considers a CPU idle if it doesn't have any task
+ * to execute and tries to keep idle cores idle to conserve power;
+ * however, for example, a per-cpu work item scheduled from an
+ * interrupt handler on an idle CPU will force the scheduler to
+ * excute the work item on that CPU breaking the idleness, which in
+ * turn may lead to more scheduling choices which are sub-optimal
+ * in terms of power consumption.
+ *
+ * Workqueues marked with WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT are per-cpu by default
+ * but become unbound if workqueue.power_efficient kernel param is
+ * specified. Per-cpu workqueues which are identified to
+ * contribute significantly to power-consumption are identified and
+ * marked with this flag and enabling the power_efficient mode
+ * leads to noticeable power saving at the cost of small
+ * performance disadvantage.
+ *
+ * http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1480396
+ */
+ WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT = 1 << 7,
+
__WQ_DRAINING = 1 << 16, /* internal: workqueue is draining */
__WQ_ORDERED = 1 << 17, /* internal: workqueue is ordered */