diff --git a/include/linux/ftrace_event.h b/include/linux/ftrace_event.h
index 642928c..b80c8dd 100644
--- a/include/linux/ftrace_event.h
+++ b/include/linux/ftrace_event.h
@@ -127,13 +127,13 @@
 void trace_current_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 					struct ring_buffer_event *event,
 					unsigned long flags, int pc);
-void trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
-				       struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-					unsigned long flags, int pc);
-void trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
-					    struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-					    unsigned long flags, int pc,
-					    struct pt_regs *regs);
+void trace_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
+				struct ring_buffer_event *event,
+				unsigned long flags, int pc);
+void trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
+				     struct ring_buffer_event *event,
+				     unsigned long flags, int pc,
+				     struct pt_regs *regs);
 void trace_current_buffer_discard_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 					 struct ring_buffer_event *event);
 
diff --git a/include/trace/ftrace.h b/include/trace/ftrace.h
index a763888..698f2a8 100644
--- a/include/trace/ftrace.h
+++ b/include/trace/ftrace.h
@@ -545,8 +545,7 @@
 	{ assign; }							\
 									\
 	if (!filter_current_check_discard(buffer, event_call, entry, event)) \
-		trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer,		\
-						  event, irq_flags, pc); \
+		trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, irq_flags, pc); \
 }
 /*
  * The ftrace_test_probe is compiled out, it is only here as a build time check
diff --git a/kernel/trace/Kconfig b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
index 4cea4f4..5d89335 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/Kconfig
+++ b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
@@ -119,6 +119,7 @@
 	select BINARY_PRINTF
 	select EVENT_TRACING
 	select TRACE_CLOCK
+	select IRQ_WORK
 
 config GENERIC_TRACER
 	bool
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index d5cbc0d..37d1c70 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include <linux/seq_file.h>
 #include <linux/notifier.h>
 #include <linux/irqflags.h>
+#include <linux/irq_work.h>
 #include <linux/debugfs.h>
 #include <linux/pagemap.h>
 #include <linux/hardirq.h>
@@ -85,6 +86,14 @@
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(bool, trace_cmdline_save);
 
 /*
+ * When a reader is waiting for data, then this variable is
+ * set to true.
+ */
+static bool trace_wakeup_needed;
+
+static struct irq_work trace_work_wakeup;
+
+/*
  * Kill all tracing for good (never come back).
  * It is initialized to 1 but will turn to zero if the initialization
  * of the tracer is successful. But that is the only place that sets
@@ -329,12 +338,18 @@
 static int trace_stop_count;
 static DEFINE_RAW_SPINLOCK(tracing_start_lock);
 
-static void wakeup_work_handler(struct work_struct *work)
+/**
+ * trace_wake_up - wake up tasks waiting for trace input
+ *
+ * Schedules a delayed work to wake up any task that is blocked on the
+ * trace_wait queue. These is used with trace_poll for tasks polling the
+ * trace.
+ */
+static void trace_wake_up(struct irq_work *work)
 {
-	wake_up(&trace_wait);
-}
+	wake_up_all(&trace_wait);
 
-static DECLARE_DELAYED_WORK(wakeup_work, wakeup_work_handler);
+}
 
 /**
  * tracing_on - enable tracing buffers
@@ -389,22 +404,6 @@
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tracing_is_on);
 
-/**
- * trace_wake_up - wake up tasks waiting for trace input
- *
- * Schedules a delayed work to wake up any task that is blocked on the
- * trace_wait queue. These is used with trace_poll for tasks polling the
- * trace.
- */
-void trace_wake_up(void)
-{
-	const unsigned long delay = msecs_to_jiffies(2);
-
-	if (trace_flags & TRACE_ITER_BLOCK)
-		return;
-	schedule_delayed_work(&wakeup_work, delay);
-}
-
 static int __init set_buf_size(char *str)
 {
 	unsigned long buf_size;
@@ -753,6 +752,40 @@
 }
 #endif /* CONFIG_TRACER_MAX_TRACE */
 
+static void default_wait_pipe(struct trace_iterator *iter)
+{
+	DEFINE_WAIT(wait);
+
+	prepare_to_wait(&trace_wait, &wait, TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
+
+	/*
+	 * The events can happen in critical sections where
+	 * checking a work queue can cause deadlocks.
+	 * After adding a task to the queue, this flag is set
+	 * only to notify events to try to wake up the queue
+	 * using irq_work.
+	 *
+	 * We don't clear it even if the buffer is no longer
+	 * empty. The flag only causes the next event to run
+	 * irq_work to do the work queue wake up. The worse
+	 * that can happen if we race with !trace_empty() is that
+	 * an event will cause an irq_work to try to wake up
+	 * an empty queue.
+	 *
+	 * There's no reason to protect this flag either, as
+	 * the work queue and irq_work logic will do the necessary
+	 * synchronization for the wake ups. The only thing
+	 * that is necessary is that the wake up happens after
+	 * a task has been queued. It's OK for spurious wake ups.
+	 */
+	trace_wakeup_needed = true;
+
+	if (trace_empty(iter))
+		schedule();
+
+	finish_wait(&trace_wait, &wait);
+}
+
 /**
  * register_tracer - register a tracer with the ftrace system.
  * @type - the plugin for the tracer
@@ -1156,30 +1189,32 @@
 __buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer, struct ring_buffer_event *event)
 {
 	__this_cpu_write(trace_cmdline_save, true);
+	if (trace_wakeup_needed) {
+		trace_wakeup_needed = false;
+		/* irq_work_queue() supplies it's own memory barriers */
+		irq_work_queue(&trace_work_wakeup);
+	}
 	ring_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event);
 }
 
 static inline void
 __trace_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 			     struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-			     unsigned long flags, int pc,
-			     int wake)
+			     unsigned long flags, int pc)
 {
 	__buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event);
 
 	ftrace_trace_stack(buffer, flags, 6, pc);
 	ftrace_trace_userstack(buffer, flags, pc);
-
-	if (wake)
-		trace_wake_up();
 }
 
 void trace_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 				struct ring_buffer_event *event,
 				unsigned long flags, int pc)
 {
-	__trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc, 1);
+	__trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
 }
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(trace_buffer_unlock_commit);
 
 struct ring_buffer_event *
 trace_current_buffer_lock_reserve(struct ring_buffer **current_rb,
@@ -1196,29 +1231,21 @@
 					struct ring_buffer_event *event,
 					unsigned long flags, int pc)
 {
-	__trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc, 1);
+	__trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(trace_current_buffer_unlock_commit);
 
-void trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
-				       struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-				       unsigned long flags, int pc)
-{
-	__trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc, 0);
-}
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit);
-
-void trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
-					    struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-					    unsigned long flags, int pc,
-					    struct pt_regs *regs)
+void trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
+				     struct ring_buffer_event *event,
+				     unsigned long flags, int pc,
+				     struct pt_regs *regs)
 {
 	__buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event);
 
 	ftrace_trace_stack_regs(buffer, flags, 0, pc, regs);
 	ftrace_trace_userstack(buffer, flags, pc);
 }
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit_regs);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs);
 
 void trace_current_buffer_discard_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 					 struct ring_buffer_event *event)
@@ -3354,19 +3381,6 @@
 	}
 }
 
-
-void default_wait_pipe(struct trace_iterator *iter)
-{
-	DEFINE_WAIT(wait);
-
-	prepare_to_wait(&trace_wait, &wait, TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
-
-	if (trace_empty(iter))
-		schedule();
-
-	finish_wait(&trace_wait, &wait);
-}
-
 /*
  * This is a make-shift waitqueue.
  * A tracer might use this callback on some rare cases:
@@ -5107,6 +5121,7 @@
 #endif
 
 	trace_init_cmdlines();
+	init_irq_work(&trace_work_wakeup, trace_wake_up);
 
 	register_tracer(&nop_trace);
 	current_trace = &nop_trace;
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.h b/kernel/trace/trace.h
index 3e8a176..55010ed 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.h
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.h
@@ -327,7 +327,6 @@
 
 int tracer_init(struct tracer *t, struct trace_array *tr);
 int tracing_is_enabled(void);
-void trace_wake_up(void);
 void tracing_reset(struct trace_array *tr, int cpu);
 void tracing_reset_online_cpus(struct trace_array *tr);
 void tracing_reset_current(int cpu);
@@ -349,9 +348,6 @@
 			  unsigned long len,
 			  unsigned long flags,
 			  int pc);
-void trace_buffer_unlock_commit(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
-				struct ring_buffer_event *event,
-				unsigned long flags, int pc);
 
 struct trace_entry *tracing_get_trace_entry(struct trace_array *tr,
 						struct trace_array_cpu *data);
@@ -370,7 +366,6 @@
 
 void tracing_iter_reset(struct trace_iterator *iter, int cpu);
 
-void default_wait_pipe(struct trace_iterator *iter);
 void poll_wait_pipe(struct trace_iterator *iter);
 
 void ftrace(struct trace_array *tr,
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
index cb2df3b..880073d 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
@@ -1760,7 +1760,7 @@
 	entry->ip			= ip;
 	entry->parent_ip		= parent_ip;
 
-	trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
+	trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
 
  out:
 	atomic_dec(&per_cpu(ftrace_test_event_disable, cpu));
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c b/kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
index 5a3c533..1865d5f 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_kprobe.c
@@ -751,8 +751,8 @@
 	store_trace_args(sizeof(*entry), tp, regs, (u8 *)&entry[1], dsize);
 
 	if (!filter_current_check_discard(buffer, call, entry, event))
-		trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(buffer, event,
-						       irq_flags, pc, regs);
+		trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(buffer, event,
+						irq_flags, pc, regs);
 }
 
 /* Kretprobe handler */
@@ -784,8 +784,8 @@
 	store_trace_args(sizeof(*entry), tp, regs, (u8 *)&entry[1], dsize);
 
 	if (!filter_current_check_discard(buffer, call, entry, event))
-		trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(buffer, event,
-						       irq_flags, pc, regs);
+		trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs(buffer, event,
+						irq_flags, pc, regs);
 }
 
 /* Event entry printers */
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_sched_switch.c b/kernel/trace/trace_sched_switch.c
index b0a136a..3374c79 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_sched_switch.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_sched_switch.c
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
 	entry->next_cpu			= task_cpu(wakee);
 
 	if (!filter_check_discard(call, entry, buffer, event))
-		trace_nowake_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
+		trace_buffer_unlock_commit(buffer, event, flags, pc);
 }
 
 static void
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_selftest.c b/kernel/trace/trace_selftest.c
index 091b815..4762316 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_selftest.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_selftest.c
@@ -1094,6 +1094,7 @@
 	tracing_stop();
 	/* check both trace buffers */
 	ret = trace_test_buffer(tr, NULL);
+	printk("ret = %d\n", ret);
 	if (!ret)
 		ret = trace_test_buffer(&max_tr, &count);