Linux.conf.au 2003 | Abstracts

I'll Do It Later: Softirqs, Tasklets, Bottom Halves, Task Queues, Work Queues and Timers

Matthew Wilcox

Bio

Paper

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An interrupt is a signal to a device driver that there is work to be done. However, if the driver does too much work in the interrupt handler, system responsiveness will be degraded. The standard way to avoid this problem (until Linux 2.3.42) was to use a bottom half or a task queue to schedule some work to do later. These handlers are run with interrupts enabled and lengthy processing has less impact on system response.

The work done for softnet introduced two new facilities for deferring work until later: softirqs and tasklets. They were introduced in order to achieve better SMP scalabiity. The existing bottom halves were reimplemented as a special form of tasklet which preserved their semantics. In Linux 2.5.40, these bottom halves were removed; and in 2.5.41, task queues were replaced with a new abstraction: work queues.

This paper discusses the differences and relationships between softirqs, tasklets, work queues and timers. The rules for using them are laid out, along with some guidelines for choosing when to use which feature.

Converting a driver from using the older mechanisms to the new ones requires SMP auditing and understanding the interactions between the various driver entry points. Accordingly, there is a brief review of the basic locking primitives, followed by a more detailed examination of the additional locking primitives which were introduced with the softirqs and tasklets.