Re: [PATCH 1/2] cgroup-v2/freezer: allow freezing with kthreads

[Pavel Tikhomirov <ptikhomirov@virtuozzo.com>]

This one is accidental, please ignore.

On 12/23/25 18:20, Pavel Tikhomirov wrote:
> Cgroup-v2 implementation of freezer ignores kernel threads, but still
> counts them against nr_frozen_tasks. So the cgroup with kthread inside
> will never report frozen.
> 
> It might be generally beneficial to put kthreads into cgroups. One
> example is vhost-xxx kthreads used for qemu virtual machines, those are
> already put into cgroups of their virtual machine. This way they can be
> restricted by the same limits the instance they belong to is.
> 
> To make the cgroups with kthreads freezable, let's count the number of
> kthreads in each cgroup when it is freezing, and offset nr_frozen_tasks
> checks with it. This way we can ignore kthreads completely and report
> cgroup frozen when all non-kthread tasks are frozen.
> 
> Note: The nr_kthreads_ignore is protected with css_set_lock. And it is
> zero unless cgroup is freezing.
> Note2: This restores parity with cgroup-v1 freezer behavior, which
> already ignored kthreads when counting frozen tasks.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Pavel Tikhomirov <ptikhomirov@virtuozzo.com>
> ---
>  include/linux/cgroup-defs.h |  5 +++++
>  kernel/cgroup/freezer.c     | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
>  2 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
> index b760a3c470a5..949f80dc33c5 100644
> --- a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
> +++ b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
> @@ -451,6 +451,11 @@ struct cgroup_freezer_state {
>  	 */
>  	int nr_frozen_tasks;
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * Number of kernel threads to ignore while freezing
> +	 */
> +	int nr_kthreads_ignore;
> +
>  	/* Freeze time data consistency protection */
>  	seqcount_spinlock_t freeze_seq;
>  
> diff --git a/kernel/cgroup/freezer.c b/kernel/cgroup/freezer.c
> index 6c18854bff34..02a1db180b70 100644
> --- a/kernel/cgroup/freezer.c
> +++ b/kernel/cgroup/freezer.c
> @@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ void cgroup_update_frozen(struct cgroup *cgrp)
>  	 * the cgroup frozen. Otherwise it's not frozen.
>  	 */
>  	frozen = test_bit(CGRP_FREEZE, &cgrp->flags) &&
> -		cgrp->freezer.nr_frozen_tasks == __cgroup_task_count(cgrp);
> +		 (cgrp->freezer.nr_frozen_tasks +
> +		  cgrp->freezer.nr_kthreads_ignore == __cgroup_task_count(cgrp));
>  
>  	/* If flags is updated, update the state of ancestor cgroups. */
>  	if (cgroup_update_frozen_flag(cgrp, frozen))
> @@ -145,6 +146,17 @@ void cgroup_leave_frozen(bool always_leave)
>  	spin_unlock_irq(&css_set_lock);
>  }
>  
> +static inline void cgroup_inc_kthread_ignore_cnt(struct cgroup *cgrp)
> +{
> +	cgrp->freezer.nr_kthreads_ignore++;
> +}
> +
> +static inline void cgroup_dec_kthread_ignore_cnt(struct cgroup *cgrp)
> +{
> +	cgrp->freezer.nr_kthreads_ignore--;
> +	WARN_ON_ONCE(cgrp->freezer.nr_kthreads_ignore < 0);
> +}
> +
>  /*
>   * Freeze or unfreeze the task by setting or clearing the JOBCTL_TRAP_FREEZE
>   * jobctl bit.
> @@ -199,11 +211,15 @@ static void cgroup_do_freeze(struct cgroup *cgrp, bool freeze, u64 ts_nsec)
>  	css_task_iter_start(&cgrp->self, 0, &it);
>  	while ((task = css_task_iter_next(&it))) {
>  		/*
> -		 * Ignore kernel threads here. Freezing cgroups containing
> -		 * kthreads isn't supported.
> +		 * Count kernel threads to ignore them during freezing.
>  		 */
> -		if (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD)
> +		if (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD) {
> +			if (freeze)
> +				cgroup_inc_kthread_ignore_cnt(cgrp);
> +			else
> +				cgroup_dec_kthread_ignore_cnt(cgrp);
>  			continue;
> +		}
>  		cgroup_freeze_task(task, freeze);
>  	}
>  	css_task_iter_end(&it);
> @@ -228,10 +244,19 @@ void cgroup_freezer_migrate_task(struct task_struct *task,
>  	lockdep_assert_held(&css_set_lock);
>  
>  	/*
> -	 * Kernel threads are not supposed to be frozen at all.
> +	 * Kernel threads are not supposed to be frozen at all, but we need to
> +	 * count them in order to properly ignore.
>  	 */
> -	if (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD)
> +	if (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD) {
> +		if (test_bit(CGRP_FREEZE, &dst->flags))
> +			cgroup_inc_kthread_ignore_cnt(dst);
> +		if (test_bit(CGRP_FREEZE, &src->flags))
> +			cgroup_dec_kthread_ignore_cnt(src);
> +
> +		cgroup_update_frozen(dst);
> +		cgroup_update_frozen(src);
>  		return;
> +	}
>  
>  	/*
>  	 * It's not necessary to do changes if both of the src and dst cgroups

-- 
Best regards, Pavel Tikhomirov
Senior Software Developer, Virtuozzo.