When diagnosing workqueue stalls, knowing how long each in-flight work
item has been executing is valuable. Add a current_start timestamp
(jiffies) to struct worker, set it when a work item begins execution in
process_one_work(), and print the elapsed wall-clock time in show_pwq().

Unlike current_at (which tracks CPU runtime and resets on wakeup for
CPU-intensive detection), current_start is never reset because the
diagnostic cares about total wall-clock time including sleeps.

Before: in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall]
After:  in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall] for 100s

Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
---
 kernel/workqueue.c          | 3 +++
 kernel/workqueue_internal.h | 1 +
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/workqueue.c b/kernel/workqueue.c
index 687d5c55c6174..56d8af13843f8 100644
--- a/kernel/workqueue.c
+++ b/kernel/workqueue.c
@@ -3204,6 +3204,7 @@ __acquires(&pool->lock)
 	worker->current_pwq = pwq;
 	if (worker->task)
 		worker->current_at = worker->task->se.sum_exec_runtime;
+	worker->current_start = jiffies;
 	work_data = *work_data_bits(work);
 	worker->current_color = get_work_color(work_data);
 
@@ -6359,6 +6360,8 @@ static void show_pwq(struct pool_workqueue *pwq)
 			pr_cont(" %s", comma ? "," : "");
 			pr_cont_worker_id(worker);
 			pr_cont(":%ps", worker->current_func);
+			pr_cont(" for %us",
+				jiffies_to_msecs(jiffies - worker->current_start) / 1000);
 			list_for_each_entry(work, &worker->scheduled, entry)
 				pr_cont_work(false, work, &pcws);
 			pr_cont_work_flush(comma, (work_func_t)-1L, &pcws);
diff --git a/kernel/workqueue_internal.h b/kernel/workqueue_internal.h
index f6275944ada77..8def1ddc5a1bf 100644
--- a/kernel/workqueue_internal.h
+++ b/kernel/workqueue_internal.h
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ struct worker {
 	work_func_t		current_func;	/* K: function */
 	struct pool_workqueue	*current_pwq;	/* K: pwq */
 	u64			current_at;	/* K: runtime at start or last wakeup */
+	unsigned long		current_start;	/* K: start time of current work item */
 	unsigned int		current_color;	/* K: color */
 
 	int			sleeping;	/* S: is worker sleeping? */

-- 
2.47.3

On Thu, Mar 5, 2026 at 8:16 AM Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org> wrote:
>
> When diagnosing workqueue stalls, knowing how long each in-flight work
> item has been executing is valuable. Add a current_start timestamp
> (jiffies) to struct worker, set it when a work item begins execution in
> process_one_work(), and print the elapsed wall-clock time in show_pwq().
>
> Unlike current_at (which tracks CPU runtime and resets on wakeup for
> CPU-intensive detection), current_start is never reset because the
> diagnostic cares about total wall-clock time including sleeps.
>
> Before: in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall]
> After:  in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall] for 100s
>
> Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>

Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>

This shows really useful information. Thanks!