pcpu_balance_workfn(9)

💅 pcpu_balance_workfn — a Kernel API Manual moment (yes, the (9) one, section 9 bestie) 👑

okay so picture this: you're deep in the kernel, you open the manual for pcpu_balance_workfn, and it's giving very short but very important. let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

pcpu_balance_workfn — the lil work function that manages the amount of free chunks and populated pages 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

void pcpu_balance_workfn (struct work_struct *work );

that's it. that's the whole signature. no cap. 💅

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• work — unused 🙈 like genuinely, it's not doing anything here. it's just there because work functions gotta have that shape, iykyk.

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so for each chunk type, this function manages:

• the number of fully free chunks
• the number of populated pages

and here's the thing that's highkey important to consider: when pages are freed and how they contribute to the global counts. that's the part you gotta keep in your head, bestie — the freeing moment and the global-count contribution are the main character energy of this whole function 🔥

it's not just "free stuff and move on" — the timing and the accounting are the whole vibe check.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./mm/percpu.c — plus the whole percpu friend group, all tagged (9):

• pcpu_addr_in_chunk(9)
• pcpu_check_block_hint(9)
• pcpu_next_md_free_region(9)
• pcpu_next_fit_region(9)
• pcpu_mem_zalloc(9)
• pcpu_mem_free(9)
• pcpu_chunk_relocate(9)
• pcpu_block_update(9)
• pcpu_chunk_refresh_hint(9)
• pcpu_block_refresh_hint(9)
• pcpu_block_update_hint_alloc(9)
• pcpu_block_update_hint_free(9)
• pcpu_is_populated(9)
• pcpu_find_block_fit(9)
• pcpu_alloc_area(9)
• pcpu_free_area(9)
• pcpu_alloc_first_chunk(9)
• pcpu_chunk_populated(9)
• pcpu_chunk_depopulated(9)
• pcpu_chunk_addr_search(9)
• pcpu_alloc(9)
• pcpu_balance_free(9)
• pcpu_balance_populated(9)
• pcpu_reclaim_populated(9)
• free_percpu(9)
• is_kernel_percpu_address(9)
• per_cpu_ptr_to_phys(9)
• pcpu_alloc_alloc_info(9)
• pcpu_free_alloc_info(9)
• pcpu_dump_alloc_info(9)
• pcpu_setup_first_chunk(9)
• pcpu_build_alloc_info(9)
• pcpu_embed_first_chunk(9)
• pcpu_page_first_chunk(9)

like, go off, percpu subsystem 🌈

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and that's the page, bestie 🫶 this cutie lives in the source dir ./mm and was dated October 2026 — so go forth, balance those chunks, and remember: the pages remember when they were freed. periodt. 💜⭐