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Workqueue Threads

A workqueue is a kernel object that uses a dedicated thread to process work items in a first in, first out manner. Each work item is processed by calling the function specified by the work item. A workqueue is typically used by an ISR or a high-priority thread to offload non-urgent processing to a lower-priority thread so it does not impact time-sensitive processing.

Any number of workqueues can be defined (limited only by available RAM). Each workqueue is referenced by its memory address.

A workqueue has the following key properties:

  • A queue of work items that have been added, but not yet processed.

  • A thread that processes the work items in the queue. The priority of the thread is configurable, allowing it to be either cooperative or preemptive as required.

Regardless of workqueue thread priority the workqueue thread will yield between each submitted work item, to prevent a cooperative workqueue from starving other threads.

A workqueue must be initialized before it can be used. This sets its queue to empty and spawns the workqueue’s thread. The thread runs forever, but sleeps when no work items are available.

Note

The behavior described here is changed from the Zephyr workqueue implementation used prior to release 2.6. Among the changes are:

  • Precise tracking of the status of cancelled work items, so that the caller need not be concerned that an item may be processing when the cancellation returns. Checking of return values on cancellation is still required.

  • Direct submission of delayable work items to the queue with K_NO_WAIT rather than always going through the timeout API, which could introduce delays.

  • The ability to wait until a work item has completed or a queue has been drained.

  • Finer control of behavior when scheduling a delayable work item, specifically allowing a previous deadline to remain unchanged when a work item is scheduled again.

  • Safe handling of work item resubmission when the item is being processed on another workqueue.

Using the return values of k_work_busy_get() or k_work_is_pending(), or measurements of remaining time until delayable work is scheduled, should be avoided to prevent race conditions of the type observed with the previous implementation. See also Workqueue Best Practices.

Work Item Lifecycle

Any number of work items can be defined. Each work item is referenced by its memory address.

A work item is assigned a handler function, which is the function executed by the workqueue’s thread when the work item is processed. This function accepts a single argument, which is the address of the work item itself. The work item also maintains information about its status.

A work item must be initialized before it can be used. This records the work item’s handler function and marks it as not pending.

A work item may be queued (K_WORK_QUEUED) by submitting it to a workqueue by an ISR or a thread. Submitting a work item appends the work item to the workqueue’s queue. Once the workqueue’s thread has processed all of the preceding work items in its queue the thread will remove the next work item from the queue and invoke the work item’s handler function. Depending on the scheduling priority of the workqueue’s thread, and the work required by other items in the queue, a queued work item may be processed quickly or it may remain in the queue for an extended period of time.

A delayable work item may be scheduled (K_WORK_DELAYED) to a workqueue; see Delayable Work.

A work item will be running (K_WORK_RUNNING) when it is running on a work queue, and may also be canceling (K_WORK_CANCELING) if it started running before a thread has requested that it be cancelled.

A work item can be in multiple states; for example it can be:

  • running on a queue;

  • marked canceling (because a thread used k_work_cancel_sync() to wait until the work item completed);

  • queued to run again on the same queue;

  • scheduled to be submitted to a (possibly different) queue

all simultaneously. A work item that is in any of these states is pending (k_work_is_pending()) or busy (k_work_busy_get()).

A handler function can use any kernel API available to threads. However, operations that are potentially blocking (e.g. taking a semaphore) must be used with care, since the workqueue cannot process subsequent work items in its queue until the handler function finishes executing.

The single argument that is passed to a handler function can be ignored if it is not required. If the handler function requires additional information about the work it is to perform, the work item can be embedded in a larger data structure. The handler function can then use the argument value to compute the address of the enclosing data structure with CONTAINER_OF, and thereby obtain access to the additional information it needs.

A work item is typically initialized once and then submitted to a specific workqueue whenever work needs to be performed. If an ISR or a thread attempts to submit a work item that is already queued the work item is not affected; the work item remains in its current place in the workqueue’s queue, and the work is only performed once.

A handler function is permitted to re-submit its work item argument to the workqueue, since the work item is no longer queued at that time. This allows the handler to execute work in stages, without unduly delaying the processing of other work items in the workqueue’s queue.

Important

A pending work item must not be altered until the item has been processed by the workqueue thread. This means a work item must not be re-initialized while it is busy. Furthermore, any additional information the work item’s handler function needs to perform its work must not be altered until the handler function has finished executing.

Delayable Work

An ISR or a thread may need to schedule a work item that is to be processed only after a specified period of time, rather than immediately. This can be done by scheduling a delayable work item to be submitted to a workqueue at a future time.

A delayable work item contains a standard work item but adds fields that record when and where the item should be submitted.

A delayable work item is initialized and scheduled to a workqueue in a similar manner to a standard work item, although different kernel APIs are used. When the schedule request is made the kernel initiates a timeout mechanism that is triggered after the specified delay has elapsed. Once the timeout occurs the kernel submits the work item to the specified workqueue, where it remains queued until it is processed in the standard manner.

Note that work handler used for delayable still receives a pointer to the underlying non-delayable work structure, which is not publicly accessible from k_work_delayable. To get access to an object that contains the delayable work object use this idiom:

static void work_handler(struct k_work *work)
{
        struct k_work_delayable *dwork = k_work_delayable_from_work(work);
        struct work_context *ctx = CONTAINER_OF(dwork, struct work_context,
                                                timed_work);
        ...

Triggered Work

The k_work_poll_submit() interface schedules a triggered work item in response to a poll event (see Polling API), that will call a user-defined function when a monitored resource becomes available or poll signal is raised, or a timeout occurs. In contrast to k_poll(), the triggered work does not require a dedicated thread waiting or actively polling for a poll event.

A triggered work item is a standard work item that has the following added properties:

  • A pointer to an array of poll events that will trigger work item submissions to the workqueue

  • A size of the array containing poll events.

A triggered work item is initialized and submitted to a workqueue in a similar manner to a standard work item, although dedicated kernel APIs are used. When a submit request is made, the kernel begins observing kernel objects specified by the poll events. Once at least one of the observed kernel object’s changes state, the work item is submitted to the specified workqueue, where it remains queued until it is processed in the standard manner.

Important

The triggered work item as well as the referenced array of poll events have to be valid and cannot be modified for a complete triggered work item lifecycle, from submission to work item execution or cancellation.

An ISR or a thread may cancel a triggered work item it has submitted as long as it is still waiting for a poll event. In such case, the kernel stops waiting for attached poll events and the specified work is not executed. Otherwise the cancellation cannot be performed.

System Workqueue

The kernel defines a workqueue known as the system workqueue, which is available to any application or kernel code that requires workqueue support. The system workqueue is optional, and only exists if the application makes use of it.

Important

Additional workqueues should only be defined when it is not possible to submit new work items to the system workqueue, since each new workqueue incurs a significant cost in memory footprint. A new workqueue can be justified if it is not possible for its work items to co-exist with existing system workqueue work items without an unacceptable impact; for example, if the new work items perform blocking operations that would delay other system workqueue processing to an unacceptable degree.

How to Use Workqueues

Defining and Controlling a Workqueue

A workqueue is defined using a variable of type k_work_q. The workqueue is initialized by defining the stack area used by its thread, initializing the k_work_q, either zeroing its memory or calling k_work_queue_init(), and then calling k_work_queue_start(). The stack area must be defined using K_THREAD_STACK_DEFINE to ensure it is properly set up in memory.

The following code defines and initializes a workqueue:

#define MY_STACK_SIZE 512
#define MY_PRIORITY 5

K_THREAD_STACK_DEFINE(my_stack_area, MY_STACK_SIZE);

struct k_work_q my_work_q;

k_work_queue_init(&my_work_q);

k_work_queue_start(&my_work_q, my_stack_area,
                   K_THREAD_STACK_SIZEOF(my_stack_area), MY_PRIORITY,
                   NULL);

In addition the queue identity and certain behavior related to thread rescheduling can be controlled by the optional final parameter; see k_work_queue_start() for details.

The following API can be used to interact with a workqueue:

  • k_work_queue_drain() can be used to block the caller until the work queue has no items left. Work items resubmitted from the workqueue thread are accepted while a queue is draining, but work items from any other thread or ISR are rejected. The restriction on submitting more work can be extended past the completion of the drain operation in order to allow the blocking thread to perform additional work while the queue is “plugged”. Note that draining a queue has no effect on scheduling or processing delayable items, but if the queue is plugged and the deadline expires the item will silently fail to be submitted.

  • k_work_queue_unplug() removes any previous block on submission to the queue due to a previous drain operation.

Submitting a Work Item

A work item is defined using a variable of type k_work. It must be initialized by calling k_work_init(), unless it is defined using K_WORK_DEFINE in which case initialization is performed at compile-time.

An initialized work item can be submitted to the system workqueue by calling k_work_submit(), or to a specified workqueue by calling k_work_submit_to_queue().

The following code demonstrates how an ISR can offload the printing of error messages to the system workqueue. Note that if the ISR attempts to resubmit the work item while it is still queued, the work item is left unchanged and the associated error message will not be printed.

struct device_info {
    struct k_work work;
    char name[16]
} my_device;

void my_isr(void *arg)
{
    ...
    if (error detected) {
        k_work_submit(&my_device.work);
    }
    ...
}

void print_error(struct k_work *item)
{
    struct device_info *the_device =
        CONTAINER_OF(item, struct device_info, work);
    printk("Got error on device %s\n", the_device->name);
}

/* initialize name info for a device */
strcpy(my_device.name, "FOO_dev");

/* initialize work item for printing device's error messages */
k_work_init(&my_device.work, print_error);

/* install my_isr() as interrupt handler for the device (not shown) */
...

The following API can be used to check the status of or synchronize with the work item:

  • k_work_busy_get() returns a snapshot of flags indicating work item state. A zero value indicates the work is not scheduled, submitted, being executed, or otherwise still being referenced by the workqueue infrastructure.

  • k_work_is_pending() is a helper that indicates true if and only if the work is scheduled, queued, or running.

  • k_work_flush() may be invoked from threads to block until the work item has completed. It returns immediately if the work is not pending.

  • k_work_cancel() attempts to prevent the work item from being executed. This may or may not be successful. This is safe to invoke from ISRs.

  • k_work_cancel_sync() may be invoked from threads to block until the work completes; it will return immediately if the cancellation was successful or not necessary (the work wasn’t submitted or running). This can be used after k_work_cancel() is invoked (from an ISR)` to confirm completion of an ISR-initiated cancellation.

Scheduling a Delayable Work Item

A delayable work item is defined using a variable of type k_work_delayable. It must be initialized by calling k_work_init_delayable().

For delayed work there are two common use cases, depending on whether a deadline should be extended if a new event occurs. An example is collecting data that comes in asynchronously, e.g. characters from a UART associated with a keyboard. There are two APIs that submit work after a delay:

  • k_work_schedule() (or k_work_schedule_for_queue()) schedules work to be executed at a specific time or after a delay. Further attempts to schedule the same item with this API before the delay completes will not change the time at which the item will be submitted to its queue. Use this if the policy is to keep collecting data until a specified delay since the first unprocessed data was received;

  • k_work_reschedule() (or k_work_reschedule_for_queue()) unconditionally sets the deadline for the work, replacing any previous incomplete delay and changing the destination queue if necessary. Use this if the policy is to keep collecting data until a specified delay since the last unprocessed data was received.

If the work item is not scheduled both APIs behave the same. If K_NO_WAIT is specified as the delay the behavior is as if the item was immediately submitted directly to the target queue, without waiting for a minimal timeout (unless k_work_schedule() is used and a previous delay has not completed).

Both also have variants that allow control of the queue used for submission.

The helper function k_work_delayable_from_work() can be used to get a pointer to the containing k_work_delayable from a pointer to k_work that is passed to a work handler function.

The following additional API can be used to check the status of or synchronize with the work item:

Synchronizing with Work Items

While the state of both regular and delayable work items can be determined from any context using k_work_busy_get() and k_work_delayable_busy_get() some use cases require synchronizing with work items after they’ve been submitted. k_work_flush(), k_work_cancel_sync(), and k_work_cancel_delayable_sync() can be invoked from thread context to wait until the requested state has been reached.

These APIs must be provided with a k_work_sync object that has no application-inspectable components but is needed to provide the synchronization objects. These objects should not be allocated on a stack if the code is expected to work on architectures with CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE.

Workqueue Best Practices

Avoid Race Conditions

Sometimes the data a work item must process is naturally thread-safe, for example when it’s put into a k_queue by some thread and processed in the work thread. More often external synchronization is required to avoid data races: cases where the work thread might inspect or manipulate shared state that’s being accessed by another thread or interrupt. Such state might be a flag indicating that work needs to be done, or a shared object that is filled by an ISR or thread and read by the work handler.

For simple flags Atomic Services may be sufficient. In other cases spin locks (k_spinlock_t) or thread-aware locks (k_sem, k_mutex , …) may be used to ensure data races don’t occur.

If the selected lock mechanism can sleep then allowing the work thread to sleep will starve other work queue items, which may need to make progress in order to get the lock released. Work handlers should try to take the lock with its no-wait path. For example:

static void work_handler(struct work *work)
{
        struct work_context *parent = CONTAINER_OF(work, struct work_context,
                                                   work_item);

        if (k_mutex_lock(&parent->lock, K_NO_WAIT) != 0) {
                /* NB: Submit will fail if the work item is being cancelled. */
                (void)k_work_submit(work);
                return;
        }

        /* do stuff under lock */
        k_mutex_unlock(&parent->lock);
        /* do stuff without lock */
}

Be aware that if the lock is held by a thread with a lower priority than the work queue the resubmission may starve the thread that would release the lock, causing the application to fail. Where the idiom above is required a delayable work item is preferred, and the work should be (re-)scheduled with a non-zero delay to allow the thread holding the lock to make progress.

Note that submitting from the work handler can fail if the work item had been cancelled. Generally this is acceptable, since the cancellation will complete once the handler finishes. If it is not, the code above must take other steps to notify the application that the work could not be performed.

Work items in isolation are self-locking, so you don’t need to hold an external lock just to submit or schedule them. Even if you use external state protected by such a lock to prevent further resubmission, it’s safe to do the resubmit as long as you’re sure that eventually the item will take its lock and check that state to determine whether it should do anything. Where a delayable work item is being rescheduled in its handler due to inability to take the lock some other self-locking state, such as an atomic flag set by the application/driver when the cancel is initiated, would be required to detect the cancellation and avoid the cancelled work item being submitted again after the deadline.

Check Return Values

All work API functions return status of the underlying operation, and in many cases it is important to verify that the intended result was obtained.

  • Submitting a work item (k_work_submit_to_queue()) can fail if the work is being cancelled or the queue is not accepting new items. If this happens the work will not be executed, which could cause a subsystem that is animated by work handler activity to become non-responsive.

  • Asynchronous cancellation (k_work_cancel() or k_work_cancel_delayable()) can complete while the work item is still being run by a handler. Proceeding to manipulate state shared with the work handler will result in data races that can cause failures.

Many race conditions have been present in Zephyr code because the results of an operation were not checked.

There may be good reason to believe that a return value indicating that the operation did not complete as expected is not a problem. In those cases the code should clearly document this, by (1) casting the return value to void to indicate that the result is intentionally ignored, and (2) documenting what happens in the unexpected case. For example:

/* If this fails, the work handler will check pub->active and
 * exit without transmitting.
 */
(void)k_work_cancel_delayable(&pub->timer);

However in such a case the following code must still avoid data races, as it cannot guarantee that the work thread is not accessing work-related state.

Don’t Optimize Prematurely

The workqueue API is designed to be safe when invoked from multiple threads and interrupts. Attempts to externally inspect a work item’s state and make decisions based on the result are likely to create new problems.

So when new work comes in, just submit it. Don’t attempt to “optimize” by checking whether the work item is already submitted by inspecting snapshot state with k_work_is_pending() or k_work_busy_get(), or checking for a non-zero delay from k_work_delayable_remaining_get(). Those checks are fragile: a “busy” indication can be obsolete by the time the test is returned, and a “not-busy” indication can also be wrong if work is submitted from multiple contexts, or (for delayable work) if the deadline has completed but the work is still in queued or running state.

A general best practice is to always maintain in shared state some condition that can be checked by the handler to confirm whether there is work to be done. This way you can use the work handler as the standard cleanup path: rather than having to deal with cancellation and cleanup at points where items are submitted, you may be able to have everything done in the work handler itself.

A rare case where you could safely use k_work_is_pending() is as a check to avoid invoking k_work_flush() or k_work_cancel_sync(), if you are certain that nothing else might submit the work while you’re checking (generally because you’re holding a lock that prevents access to state used for submission).

Suggested Uses

Use the system workqueue to defer complex interrupt-related processing from an ISR to a shared thread. This allows the interrupt-related processing to be done promptly without compromising the system’s ability to respond to subsequent interrupts, and does not require the application to define and manage an additional thread to do the processing.

API Reference

group workqueue_apis

Defines

K_WORK_DELAYABLE_DEFINE(work, work_handler)

Initialize a statically-defined delayable work item.

This macro can be used to initialize a statically-defined delayable work item, prior to its first use. For example,

static K_WORK_DELAYABLE_DEFINE(<dwork>, <work_handler>); 

Note that if the runtime dependencies support initialization with k_work_init_delayable() using that will eliminate the initialized object in ROM that is produced by this macro and copied in at system startup.

Parameters
  • work – Symbol name for delayable work item object

  • work_handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

K_WORK_USER_DEFINE(work, work_handler)

Initialize a statically-defined user work item.

This macro can be used to initialize a statically-defined user work item, prior to its first use. For example,

static K_WORK_USER_DEFINE(<work>, <work_handler>); 

Parameters
  • work – Symbol name for work item object

  • work_handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

K_WORK_DEFINE(work, work_handler)

Initialize a statically-defined work item.

This macro can be used to initialize a statically-defined workqueue work item, prior to its first use. For example,

static K_WORK_DEFINE(<work>, <work_handler>); 

Parameters
  • work – Symbol name for work item object

  • work_handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

K_DELAYED_WORK_DEFINE(work, work_handler)

Initialize a statically-defined delayed work item.

This macro can be used to initialize a statically-defined workqueue delayed work item, prior to its first use. For example,

static K_DELAYED_WORK_DEFINE(<work>, <work_handler>); 

Parameters
  • work – Symbol name for delayed work item object

  • work_handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

Typedefs

typedef void (*k_work_handler_t)(struct k_work *work)

The signature for a work item handler function.

The function will be invoked by the thread animating a work queue.

Param work

the work item that provided the handler.

typedef void (*k_work_user_handler_t)(struct k_work_user *work)

Work item handler function type for user work queues.

A work item’s handler function is executed by a user workqueue’s thread when the work item is processed by the workqueue.

Param work

Address of the work item.

Enums

enum [anonymous]

Values:

enumerator K_WORK_RUNNING = BIT(K_WORK_RUNNING_BIT)

Flag indicating a work item that is running under a work queue thread.

Accessed via k_work_busy_get(). May co-occur with other flags.

enumerator K_WORK_CANCELING = BIT(K_WORK_CANCELING_BIT)

Flag indicating a work item that is being canceled.

   Accessed via k_work_busy_get().  May co-occur with other flags.

enumerator K_WORK_QUEUED = BIT(K_WORK_QUEUED_BIT)

Flag indicating a work item that has been submitted to a queue but has not started running.

Accessed via k_work_busy_get(). May co-occur with other flags.

enumerator K_WORK_DELAYED = BIT(K_WORK_DELAYED_BIT)

Flag indicating a delayed work item that is scheduled for submission to a queue.

Accessed via k_work_busy_get(). May co-occur with other flags.

Functions

void k_work_init(struct k_work *work, k_work_handler_t handler)

Initialize a (non-delayable) work structure.

This must be invoked before submitting a work structure for the first time. It need not be invoked again on the same work structure. It can be re-invoked to change the associated handler, but this must be done when the work item is idle.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • work – the work structure to be initialized.

  • handler – the handler to be invoked by the work item.

int k_work_busy_get(const struct k_work *work)

Busy state flags from the work item.

A zero return value indicates the work item appears to be idle.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result is checked. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

Returns

a mask of flags K_WORK_DELAYED, K_WORK_QUEUED, K_WORK_RUNNING, and K_WORK_CANCELING.

static inline bool k_work_is_pending(const struct k_work *work)

Test whether a work item is currently pending.

Wrapper to determine whether a work item is in a non-idle dstate.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result is checked. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

Returns

true if and only if k_work_busy_get() returns a non-zero value.

int k_work_submit_to_queue(struct k_work_q *queue, struct k_work *work)

Submit a work item to a queue.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • queue – pointer to the work queue on which the item should run. If NULL the queue from the most recent submission will be used.

  • work – pointer to the work item.

Return values
  • 0 – if work was already submitted to a queue

  • 1 – if work was not submitted and has been queued to queue

  • 2 – if work was running and has been queued to the queue that was running it

  • -EBUSY

    • if work submission was rejected because the work item is cancelling; or

    • queue is draining; or

    • queue is plugged.

  • -EINVAL – if queue is null and the work item has never been run.

  • -ENODEV – if queue has not been started.

int k_work_submit(struct k_work *work)

Submit a work item to the system queue.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

Returns

as with k_work_submit_to_queue().

bool k_work_flush(struct k_work *work, struct k_work_sync *sync)

Wait for last-submitted instance to complete.

Resubmissions may occur while waiting, including chained submissions (from within the handler).

Note

Be careful of caller and work queue thread relative priority. If this function sleeps it will not return until the work queue thread completes the tasks that allow this thread to resume.

Note

Behavior is undefined if this function is invoked on work from a work queue running work.

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

  • sync – pointer to an opaque item containing state related to the pending cancellation. The object must persist until the call returns, and be accessible from both the caller thread and the work queue thread. The object must not be used for any other flush or cancel operation until this one completes. On architectures with CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE the object must be allocated in coherent memory.

Return values
  • true – if call had to wait for completion

  • false – if work was already idle

int k_work_cancel(struct k_work *work)

Cancel a work item.

This attempts to prevent a pending (non-delayable) work item from being processed by removing it from the work queue. If the item is being processed, the work item will continue to be processed, but resubmissions are rejected until cancellation completes.

If this returns zero cancellation is complete, otherwise something (probably a work queue thread) is still referencing the item.

See also k_work_cancel_sync().

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

Returns

the k_work_busy_get() status indicating the state of the item after all cancellation steps performed by this call are completed.

bool k_work_cancel_sync(struct k_work *work, struct k_work_sync *sync)

Cancel a work item and wait for it to complete.

Same as k_work_cancel() but does not return until cancellation is complete. This can be invoked by a thread after k_work_cancel() to synchronize with a previous cancellation.

On return the work structure will be idle unless something submits it after the cancellation was complete.

Note

Be careful of caller and work queue thread relative priority. If this function sleeps it will not return until the work queue thread completes the tasks that allow this thread to resume.

Note

Behavior is undefined if this function is invoked on work from a work queue running work.

Parameters
  • work – pointer to the work item.

  • sync – pointer to an opaque item containing state related to the pending cancellation. The object must persist until the call returns, and be accessible from both the caller thread and the work queue thread. The object must not be used for any other flush or cancel operation until this one completes. On architectures with CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE the object must be allocated in coherent memory.

Return values
  • true – if work was pending (call had to wait for cancellation of a running handler to complete, or scheduled or submitted operations were cancelled);

  • false – otherwise

void k_work_queue_init(struct k_work_q *queue)

Initialize a work queue structure.

This must be invoked before starting a work queue structure for the first time. It need not be invoked again on the same work queue structure.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • queue – the queue structure to be initialized.

void k_work_queue_start(struct k_work_q *queue, k_thread_stack_t *stack, size_t stack_size, int prio, const struct k_work_queue_config *cfg)

Initialize a work queue.

This configures the work queue thread and starts it running. The function should not be re-invoked on a queue.

Parameters
  • queue – pointer to the queue structure. It must be initialized in zeroed/bss memory or with k_work_queue_init before use.

  • stack – pointer to the work thread stack area.

  • stack_size – size of the the work thread stack area, in bytes.

  • prio – initial thread priority

  • cfg – optional additional configuration parameters. Pass NULL if not required, to use the defaults documented in k_work_queue_config.

static inline k_tid_t k_work_queue_thread_get(struct k_work_q *queue)

Access the thread that animates a work queue.

This is necessary to grant a work queue thread access to things the work items it will process are expected to use.

Parameters
  • queue – pointer to the queue structure.

Returns

the thread associated with the work queue.

int k_work_queue_drain(struct k_work_q *queue, bool plug)

Wait until the work queue has drained, optionally plugging it.

This blocks submission to the work queue except when coming from queue thread, and blocks the caller until no more work items are available in the queue.

If plug is true then submission will continue to be blocked after the drain operation completes until k_work_queue_unplug() is invoked.

Note that work items that are delayed are not yet associated with their work queue. They must be cancelled externally if a goal is to ensure the work queue remains empty. The plug feature can be used to prevent delayed items from being submitted after the drain completes.

Parameters
  • queue – pointer to the queue structure.

  • plug – if true the work queue will continue to block new submissions after all items have drained.

Return values
  • 1 – if call had to wait for the drain to complete

  • 0 – if call did not have to wait

  • negative – if wait was interrupted or failed

int k_work_queue_unplug(struct k_work_q *queue)

Release a work queue to accept new submissions.

This releases the block on new submissions placed when k_work_queue_drain() is invoked with the plug option enabled. If this is invoked before the drain completes new items may be submitted as soon as the drain completes.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • queue – pointer to the queue structure.

Return values
  • 0 – if successfully unplugged

  • -EALREADY – if the work queue was not plugged.

void k_work_init_delayable(struct k_work_delayable *dwork, k_work_handler_t handler)

Initialize a delayable work structure.

This must be invoked before scheduling a delayable work structure for the first time. It need not be invoked again on the same work structure. It can be re-invoked to change the associated handler, but this must be done when the work item is idle.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • dwork – the delayable work structure to be initialized.

  • handler – the handler to be invoked by the work item.

static inline struct k_work_delayable *k_work_delayable_from_work(struct k_work *work)

Get the parent delayable work structure from a work pointer.

This function is necessary when a k_work_handler_t function is passed to k_work_schedule_for_queue() and the handler needs to access data from the container of the containing k_work_delayable.

Parameters
  • work – Address passed to the work handler

Returns

Address of the containing k_work_delayable structure.

int k_work_delayable_busy_get(const struct k_work_delayable *dwork)

Busy state flags from the delayable work item.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result can be inspected. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

Returns

a mask of flags K_WORK_DELAYED, K_WORK_QUEUED, K_WORK_RUNNING, and K_WORK_CANCELING. A zero return value indicates the work item appears to be idle.

static inline bool k_work_delayable_is_pending(const struct k_work_delayable *dwork)

Test whether a delayed work item is currently pending.

Wrapper to determine whether a delayed work item is in a non-idle state.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result can be inspected. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

Returns

true if and only if k_work_delayable_busy_get() returns a non-zero value.

static inline k_ticks_t k_work_delayable_expires_get(const struct k_work_delayable *dwork)

Get the absolute tick count at which a scheduled delayable work will be submitted.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result can be inspected. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

Returns

the tick count when the timer that will schedule the work item will expire, or the current tick count if the work is not scheduled.

static inline k_ticks_t k_work_delayable_remaining_get(const struct k_work_delayable *dwork)

Get the number of ticks until a scheduled delayable work will be submitted.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

This is a live snapshot of state, which may change before the result can be inspected. Use locks where appropriate.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

Returns

the number of ticks until the timer that will schedule the work item will expire, or zero if the item is not scheduled.

int k_work_schedule_for_queue(struct k_work_q *queue, struct k_work_delayable *dwork, k_timeout_t delay)

Submit an idle work item to a queue after a delay.

Unlike k_work_reschedule_for_queue() this is a no-op if the work item is already scheduled or submitted, even if delay is K_NO_WAIT.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • queue – the queue on which the work item should be submitted after the delay.

  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • delay – the time to wait before submitting the work item. If K_NO_WAIT and the work is not pending this is equivalent to k_work_submit_to_queue().

Return values
int k_work_schedule(struct k_work_delayable *dwork, k_timeout_t delay)

Submit an idle work item to the system work queue after a delay.

This is a thin wrapper around k_work_schedule_for_queue(), with all the API characteristics of that function.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • delay – the time to wait before submitting the work item. If K_NO_WAIT this is equivalent to k_work_submit_to_queue().

Returns

as with k_work_schedule_for_queue().

int k_work_reschedule_for_queue(struct k_work_q *queue, struct k_work_delayable *dwork, k_timeout_t delay)

Reschedule a work item to a queue after a delay.

Unlike k_work_schedule_for_queue() this function can change the deadline of a scheduled work item, and will schedule a work item that isn’t idle (e.g. is submitted or running). This function does not affect (“unsubmit”) a work item that has been submitted to a queue.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

If delay is K_NO_WAIT (“no delay”) the return values are as with k_work_submit_to_queue().

Parameters
  • queue – the queue on which the work item should be submitted after the delay.

  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • delay – the time to wait before submitting the work item. If K_NO_WAIT this is equivalent to k_work_submit_to_queue() after canceling any previous scheduled submission.

Return values
  • 0 – if delay is K_NO_WAIT and work was already on a queue

  • 1 – if

    • delay is K_NO_WAIT and work was not submitted but has now been queued to queue; or

    • delay not K_NO_WAIT and work has been scheduled

  • 2 – if delay is K_NO_WAIT and work was running and has been queued to the queue that was running it

  • -EBUSY – if delay is K_NO_WAIT and k_work_submit_to_queue() fails with this code.

  • -EINVAL – if delay is K_NO_WAIT and k_work_submit_to_queue() fails with this code.

  • -ENODEV – if delay is K_NO_WAIT and k_work_submit_to_queue() fails with this code.

int k_work_reschedule(struct k_work_delayable *dwork, k_timeout_t delay)

Reschedule a work item to the system work queue after a delay.

This is a thin wrapper around k_work_reschedule_for_queue(), with all the API characteristics of that function.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • delay – the time to wait before submitting the work item.

Returns

as with k_work_reschedule_for_queue().

bool k_work_flush_delayable(struct k_work_delayable *dwork, struct k_work_sync *sync)

Flush delayable work.

If the work is scheduled, it is immediately submitted. Then the caller blocks until the work completes, as with k_work_flush().

Note

Be careful of caller and work queue thread relative priority. If this function sleeps it will not return until the work queue thread completes the tasks that allow this thread to resume.

Note

Behavior is undefined if this function is invoked on dwork from a work queue running dwork.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • sync – pointer to an opaque item containing state related to the pending cancellation. The object must persist until the call returns, and be accessible from both the caller thread and the work queue thread. The object must not be used for any other flush or cancel operation until this one completes. On architectures with CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE the object must be allocated in coherent memory.

Return values
  • true – if call had to wait for completion

  • false – if work was already idle

int k_work_cancel_delayable(struct k_work_delayable *dwork)

Cancel delayable work.

Similar to k_work_cancel() but for delayable work. If the work is scheduled or submitted it is canceled. This function does not wait for the cancellation to complete.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

The work may still be running when this returns. Use k_work_flush_delayable() or k_work_cancel_delayable_sync() to ensure it is not running.

Note

Canceling delayable work does not prevent rescheduling it. It does prevent submitting it until the cancellation completes.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

Returns

the k_work_delayable_busy_get() status indicating the state of the item after all cancellation steps performed by this call are completed.

bool k_work_cancel_delayable_sync(struct k_work_delayable *dwork, struct k_work_sync *sync)

Cancel delayable work and wait.

Like k_work_cancel_delayable() but waits until the work becomes idle.

Note

Canceling delayable work does not prevent rescheduling it. It does prevent submitting it until the cancellation completes.

Note

Be careful of caller and work queue thread relative priority. If this function sleeps it will not return until the work queue thread completes the tasks that allow this thread to resume.

Note

Behavior is undefined if this function is invoked on dwork from a work queue running dwork.

Parameters
  • dwork – pointer to the delayable work item.

  • sync – pointer to an opaque item containing state related to the pending cancellation. The object must persist until the call returns, and be accessible from both the caller thread and the work queue thread. The object must not be used for any other flush or cancel operation until this one completes. On architectures with CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE the object must be allocated in coherent memory.

Return values
  • true – if work was not idle (call had to wait for cancellation of a running handler to complete, or scheduled or submitted operations were cancelled);

  • false – otherwise

static inline bool k_work_pending(const struct k_work *work)
static inline void k_work_q_start(struct k_work_q *work_q, k_thread_stack_t *stack, size_t stack_size, int prio)
static inline void k_delayed_work_init(struct k_delayed_work *work, k_work_handler_t handler)
static inline int k_delayed_work_submit_to_queue(struct k_work_q *work_q, struct k_delayed_work *work, k_timeout_t delay)
static inline int k_delayed_work_submit(struct k_delayed_work *work, k_timeout_t delay)
static inline int k_delayed_work_cancel(struct k_delayed_work *work)
static inline bool k_delayed_work_pending(struct k_delayed_work *work)
static inline int32_t k_delayed_work_remaining_get(struct k_delayed_work *work)
static inline k_ticks_t k_delayed_work_expires_ticks(struct k_delayed_work *work)
static inline k_ticks_t k_delayed_work_remaining_ticks(struct k_delayed_work *work)
static inline void k_work_user_init(struct k_work_user *work, k_work_user_handler_t handler)

Initialize a userspace work item.

This routine initializes a user workqueue work item, prior to its first use.

Parameters
  • work – Address of work item.

  • handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

static inline bool k_work_user_is_pending(struct k_work_user *work)

Check if a userspace work item is pending.

This routine indicates if user work item work is pending in a workqueue’s queue.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Note

Checking if the work is pending gives no guarantee that the work will still be pending when this information is used. It is up to the caller to make sure that this information is used in a safe manner.

Parameters
  • work – Address of work item.

Returns

true if work item is pending, or false if it is not pending.

static inline int k_work_user_submit_to_queue(struct k_work_user_q *work_q, struct k_work_user *work)

Submit a work item to a user mode workqueue.

Submits a work item to a workqueue that runs in user mode. A temporary memory allocation is made from the caller’s resource pool which is freed once the worker thread consumes the k_work item. The workqueue thread must have memory access to the k_work item being submitted. The caller must have permission granted on the work_q parameter’s queue object.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • work_q – Address of workqueue.

  • work – Address of work item.

Return values
  • -EBUSY – if the work item was already in some workqueue

  • -ENOMEM – if no memory for thread resource pool allocation

  • 0 – Success

void k_work_user_queue_start(struct k_work_user_q *work_q, k_thread_stack_t *stack, size_t stack_size, int prio, const char *name)

Start a workqueue in user mode.

This works identically to k_work_queue_start() except it is callable from user mode, and the worker thread created will run in user mode. The caller must have permissions granted on both the work_q parameter’s thread and queue objects, and the same restrictions on priority apply as k_thread_create().

Parameters
  • work_q – Address of workqueue.

  • stack – Pointer to work queue thread’s stack space, as defined by K_THREAD_STACK_DEFINE()

  • stack_size – Size of the work queue thread’s stack (in bytes), which should either be the same constant passed to K_THREAD_STACK_DEFINE() or the value of K_THREAD_STACK_SIZEOF().

  • prio – Priority of the work queue’s thread.

  • name – optional thread name. If not null a copy is made into the thread’s name buffer.

void k_work_poll_init(struct k_work_poll *work, k_work_handler_t handler)

Initialize a triggered work item.

This routine initializes a workqueue triggered work item, prior to its first use.

Parameters
  • work – Address of triggered work item.

  • handler – Function to invoke each time work item is processed.

int k_work_poll_submit_to_queue(struct k_work_q *work_q, struct k_work_poll *work, struct k_poll_event *events, int num_events, k_timeout_t timeout)

Submit a triggered work item.

This routine schedules work item work to be processed by workqueue work_q when one of the given events is signaled. The routine initiates internal poller for the work item and then returns to the caller. Only when one of the watched events happen the work item is actually submitted to the workqueue and becomes pending.

Submitting a previously submitted triggered work item that is still waiting for the event cancels the existing submission and reschedules it the using the new event list. Note that this behavior is inherently subject to race conditions with the pre-existing triggered work item and work queue, so care must be taken to synchronize such resubmissions externally.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Warning

Provided array of events as well as a triggered work item must be placed in persistent memory (valid until work handler execution or work cancellation) and cannot be modified after submission.

Parameters
  • work_q – Address of workqueue.

  • work – Address of delayed work item.

  • events – An array of events which trigger the work.

  • num_events – The number of events in the array.

  • timeout – Timeout after which the work will be scheduled for execution even if not triggered.

Return values
  • 0 – Work item started watching for events.

  • -EINVAL – Work item is being processed or has completed its work.

  • -EADDRINUSE – Work item is pending on a different workqueue.

int k_work_poll_submit(struct k_work_poll *work, struct k_poll_event *events, int num_events, k_timeout_t timeout)

Submit a triggered work item to the system workqueue.

This routine schedules work item work to be processed by system workqueue when one of the given events is signaled. The routine initiates internal poller for the work item and then returns to the caller. Only when one of the watched events happen the work item is actually submitted to the workqueue and becomes pending.

Submitting a previously submitted triggered work item that is still waiting for the event cancels the existing submission and reschedules it the using the new event list. Note that this behavior is inherently subject to race conditions with the pre-existing triggered work item and work queue, so care must be taken to synchronize such resubmissions externally.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Warning

Provided array of events as well as a triggered work item must not be modified until the item has been processed by the workqueue.

Parameters
  • work – Address of delayed work item.

  • events – An array of events which trigger the work.

  • num_events – The number of events in the array.

  • timeout – Timeout after which the work will be scheduled for execution even if not triggered.

Return values
  • 0 – Work item started watching for events.

  • -EINVAL – Work item is being processed or has completed its work.

  • -EADDRINUSE – Work item is pending on a different workqueue.

int k_work_poll_cancel(struct k_work_poll *work)

Cancel a triggered work item.

This routine cancels the submission of triggered work item work. A triggered work item can only be canceled if no event triggered work submission.

Function properties (list may not be complete)

isr-ok

Parameters
  • work – Address of delayed work item.

Return values
  • 0 – Work item canceled.

  • -EINVAL – Work item is being processed or has completed its work.

struct k_work
#include <kernel.h>

A structure used to submit work.

struct k_work_delayable
#include <kernel.h>

A structure used to submit work after a delay.

struct k_work_sync
#include <kernel.h>

A structure holding internal state for a pending synchronous operation on a work item or queue.

Instances of this type are provided by the caller for invocation of k_work_flush(), k_work_cancel_sync() and sibling flush and cancel APIs. A referenced object must persist until the call returns, and be accessible from both the caller thread and the work queue thread.

Note

If CONFIG_KERNEL_COHERENCE is enabled the object must be allocated in coherent memory; see arch_mem_coherent(). The stack on these architectures is generally not coherent. be stack-allocated. Violations are detected by runtime assertion.

struct k_work_queue_config
#include <kernel.h>

A structure holding optional configuration items for a work queue.

This structure, and values it references, are not retained by k_work_queue_start().

Public Members

const char *name

The name to be given to the work queue thread.

If left null the thread will not have a name.

bool no_yield

Control whether the work queue thread should yield between items.

Yielding between items helps guarantee the work queue thread does not starve other threads, including cooperative ones released by a work item. This is the default behavior.

Set this to true to prevent the work queue thread from yielding between items. This may be appropriate when a sequence of items should complete without yielding control.

struct k_work_q
#include <kernel.h>

A structure used to hold work until it can be processed.

struct k_delayed_work
#include <kernel.h>