Linux Device Drivers Development

Programming syntax

The following functions are defined in include/linux/workqueue.h:

• Declare the work and work queue:

struct workqueue_struct *myqueue; 
struct work_struct thework; 

• Define the worker function (the handler):

void dowork(void *data) {  /* Code goes here */ }; 

• Initialize our work queue and embed our work into it:

myqueue = create_singlethread_workqueue( "mywork" ); 
INIT_WORK( &thework, dowork, <data-pointer> ); 

We could have also created our work queues through a macro called create_workqueue. The difference between create_workqueue and create_singlethread_workqueue is that the former will create a work queue that in turn will create a separate kernel thread on each and every processor available.

• Scheduling work:

queue_work(myqueue, ...