kick_pool_pick(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 kick_pool_pick(9) — Kernel API Manual edition 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

kick_pool_pick — select an idle worker to kick, deferring the wakeup. That's the official one-liner, bestie, and we're keeping it exactly. This page lives in the Kernel API Manual, and honestly it's giving "workqueue girlies explain a very specific lock dance." 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bool kick_pool_pick (struct worker_pool *pool , struct task_struct **wakep );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • pool — pool to kick. That's the pool. She's the one getting the kick. 💥
  • wakep — out-param, set to the task to wake after pool->lock is dropped. She's not the task herself; she's where the picked task gets handed back, iykyk. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so this is like kick_pool but with a little controlled deferral. For a regular (non-BH) pool, it returns the picked worker's task via wakep instead of waking it, so the caller can issue the wakeup after dropping pool->lock — and the reason is that the wakeup takes rq->lock. 👀

Worker selection, wake_cpu setup and the BH kick still happen under the lock. So yeah: the selection, the wake_cpu setup, and the BH kick are all still doing their thing while the lock is held. The actual wakeup is the part that gets deferred.

It returns whether a worker was selected or kicked. That's the bool, bestie. 🔥

⚠️ Locking tea: Must be called with pool->lock held. Not optional, not a vibe, not "maybe I'll hold it later." Hold the lock. 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./kernel/workqueue.c, plus the entire workqueue cinematic universe. Yes, all of these. Do not scroll past the group chat. 🫶

That's the whole page, bestie. Footer check before you go: source/version ./kernel, date October 2026, kick_pool_pick(9) — mwah 💋✨

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