diff --git a/include/linux/wait.h b/include/linux/wait.h
index 1e1bf9f963a9..f3bac30587f7 100644
--- a/include/linux/wait.h
+++ b/include/linux/wait.h
@@ -102,6 +102,36 @@ init_waitqueue_func_entry(wait_queue_t *q, wait_queue_func_t func)
 	q->func		= func;
 }
 
+/**
+ * waitqueue_active -- locklessly test for waiters on the queue
+ * @q: the waitqueue to test for waiters
+ *
+ * returns true if the wait list is not empty
+ *
+ * NOTE: this function is lockless and requires care, incorrect usage _will_
+ * lead to sporadic and non-obvious failure.
+ *
+ * Use either while holding wait_queue_head_t::lock or when used for wakeups
+ * with an extra smp_mb() like:
+ *
+ *      CPU0 - waker                    CPU1 - waiter
+ *
+ *                                      for (;;) {
+ *      @cond = true;                     prepare_to_wait(&wq, &wait, state);
+ *      smp_mb();                         // smp_mb() from set_current_state()
+ *      if (waitqueue_active(wq))         if (@cond)
+ *        wake_up(wq);                      break;
+ *                                        schedule();
+ *                                      }
+ *                                      finish_wait(&wq, &wait);
+ *
+ * Because without the explicit smp_mb() it's possible for the
+ * waitqueue_active() load to get hoisted over the @cond store such that we'll
+ * observe an empty wait list while the waiter might not observe @cond.
+ *
+ * Also note that this 'optimization' trades a spin_lock() for an smp_mb(),
+ * which (when the lock is uncontended) are of roughly equal cost.
+ */
 static inline int waitqueue_active(wait_queue_head_t *q)
 {
 	return !list_empty(&q->task_list);