tree 68fe8edba4e07ba6da1dd2a293104dcfbbfd53e7
parent e71e60cd74df9386c3f684c54888f2367050b831
author Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp> 1654068767 +0900
committer Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> 1654621634 -1000

workqueue: Wrap flush_workqueue() using a macro

Since flush operation synchronously waits for completion, flushing
system-wide WQs (e.g. system_wq) might introduce possibility of deadlock
due to unexpected locking dependency. Tejun Heo commented at [1] that it
makes no sense at all to call flush_workqueue() on the shared WQs as the
caller has no idea what it's gonna end up waiting for.

Although there is flush_scheduled_work() which flushes system_wq WQ with
"Think twice before calling this function! It's very easy to get into
trouble if you don't take great care." warning message, syzbot found a
circular locking dependency caused by flushing system_wq WQ [2].

Therefore, let's change the direction to that developers had better use
their local WQs if flush_scheduled_work()/flush_workqueue(system_*_wq) is
inevitable.

Steps for converting system-wide WQs into local WQs are explained at [3],
and a conversion to stop flushing system-wide WQs is in progress. Now we
want some mechanism for preventing developers who are not aware of this
conversion from again start flushing system-wide WQs.

Since I found that WARN_ON() is complete but awkward approach for teaching
developers about this problem, let's use __compiletime_warning() for
incomplete but handy approach. For completeness, we will also insert
WARN_ON() into __flush_workqueue() after all in-tree users stopped calling
flush_scheduled_work().

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/YgnQGZWT%2Fn3VAITX@slm.duckdns.org/ [1]
Link: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=bde0f89deacca7c765b8 [2]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/49925af7-78a8-a3dd-bce6-cfc02e1a9236@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp [3]
Signed-off-by: Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>