How to immediately cancel a work item of a workque

问题:

Kernel module code:

#include <linux/delay.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/workqueue.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static struct workqueue_struct *queue;

static void work_func(struct work_struct *work)
{
    int i = 0;
    while (i < 5) {
        printk(KERN_INFO "%d\n", i);
        usleep_range(1000000, 1000001);
        i++;
    }
}

DECLARE_WORK(work, work_func);

int init_module(void)
{
    queue = create_workqueue("myworkqueue");
    queue_work(queue, &work);
    return 0;
}

void cleanup_module(void)
{
    cancel_work_sync(&work);    
    destroy_workqueue(queue);
}

If I do:

insmod mymod.ko
rmmod mymod

rmmod hangs on cancel_work_sync, which first waits for the work to finish, until the counting is over.

Is it possible to immediately cancel that work item?

Minimal runnable example here.

Tested in Linux kernel 4.9.

回答1:

Atomic control variable

I could not find a way to stop work in a workqueue, but using a simple control variable is a possible solution.

#include <linux/delay.h> /* usleep_range */
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/types.h> /* atomic_t */
#include <linux/workqueue.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static struct workqueue_struct *queue;
static atomic_t run = ATOMIC_INIT(1);

static void work_func(struct work_struct *work)
{
    int i = 0;
    while (atomic_read(&run)) {
        printk(KERN_INFO "%d\n", i);
        usleep_range(1000000, 1000001);
        i++;
        if (i == 10)
            i = 0;
    }
}

DECLARE_WORK(work, work_func);

int init_module(void)
{
    queue = create_workqueue("myworkqueue");
    queue_work(queue, &work);
    return 0;
}

void cleanup_module(void)
{
    atomic_set(&run, 0);
    destroy_workqueue(queue);
}

kthread kthread_stop

Work queues are based on kthreads, and a work queue is basically useless in that example, so we could use the kthreads directly.

kthread_stop waits for the thread to return.

See also:

• Proper way of handling threads in kernel?
• How to wait for a linux kernel thread (kthread)to exit?

Signal handling in kthreads seems to have been a polemic subject, and is now not possible: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/355280/how-signals-are-handled-in-kernel

#include <linux/delay.h> /* usleep_range */
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/kthread.h>
#include <linux/module.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static struct task_struct *kthread;

static int work_func(void *data)
{
    int i = 0;
    while (!kthread_should_stop()) {
        printk(KERN_INFO "%d\n", i);
        usleep_range(1000000, 1000001);
        i++;
        if (i == 10)
            i = 0;
    }
    return 0;
}

int init_module(void)
{
    kthread = kthread_create(work_func, NULL, "mykthread");
    wake_up_process(kthread);
    return 0;
}

void cleanup_module(void)
{
    kthread_stop(kthread);
}

Timer

Run in interrupt context directly, so more accurate, but more restricted.

See also: How to use timers in Linux kernel device drivers?

#include <linux/jiffies.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/timer.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static void callback(unsigned long data);
static unsigned long onesec;

DEFINE_TIMER(mytimer, callback, 0, 0);

static void callback(unsigned long data)
{
    pr_info("%u\n", (unsigned)jiffies);
    mod_timer(&mytimer, jiffies + onesec);
}

int init_module(void)
{
    onesec = msecs_to_jiffies(1000);
    mod_timer(&mytimer, jiffies + onesec);
    return 0;
}

void cleanup_module(void)
{
    del_timer(&mytimer);
}