--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst~mm-compaction-support-triggering-of-proactive-compaction-by-user
+++ a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst
@@ -118,7 +118,8 @@ compaction_proactiveness
 
 This tunable takes a value in the range [0, 100] with a default value of
 20. This tunable determines how aggressively compaction is done in the
-background. Setting it to 0 disables proactive compaction.
+background. Write of a non zero value to this tunable will immediately
+trigger the proactive compaction. Setting it to 0 disables proactive compaction.
 
 Note that compaction has a non-trivial system-wide impact as pages
 belonging to different processes are moved around, which could also lead
--- a/include/linux/compaction.h~mm-compaction-support-triggering-of-proactive-compaction-by-user
+++ a/include/linux/compaction.h
@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ static inline unsigned long compact_gap(
 extern unsigned int sysctl_compaction_proactiveness;
 extern int sysctl_compaction_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
 			void *buffer, size_t *length, loff_t *ppos);
+extern int compaction_proactiveness_sysctl_handler(struct ctl_table *table,
+		int write, void *buffer, size_t *length, loff_t *ppos);
 extern int sysctl_extfrag_threshold;
 extern int sysctl_compact_unevictable_allowed;
 
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h~mm-compaction-support-triggering-of-proactive-compaction-by-user
+++ a/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -846,6 +846,7 @@ typedef struct pglist_data {
 	enum zone_type kcompactd_highest_zoneidx;
 	wait_queue_head_t kcompactd_wait;
 	struct task_struct *kcompactd;
+	bool proactive_compact_trigger;
 #endif
 	/*
 	 * This is a per-node reserve of pages that are not available
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c~mm-compaction-support-triggering-of-proactive-compaction-by-user
+++ a/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -2871,7 +2871,7 @@ static struct ctl_table vm_table[] = {
 		.data		= &sysctl_compaction_proactiveness,
 		.maxlen		= sizeof(sysctl_compaction_proactiveness),
 		.mode		= 0644,
-		.proc_handler	= proc_dointvec_minmax,
+		.proc_handler	= compaction_proactiveness_sysctl_handler,
 		.extra1		= SYSCTL_ZERO,
 		.extra2		= &one_hundred,
 	},
--- a/mm/compaction.c~mm-compaction-support-triggering-of-proactive-compaction-by-user
+++ a/mm/compaction.c
@@ -2706,6 +2706,30 @@ static void compact_nodes(void)
  */
 unsigned int __read_mostly sysctl_compaction_proactiveness = 20;
 
+int compaction_proactiveness_sysctl_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
+		void *buffer, size_t *length, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+	int rc, nid;
+
+	rc = proc_dointvec_minmax(table, write, buffer, length, ppos);
+	if (rc)
+		return rc;
+
+	if (write && sysctl_compaction_proactiveness) {
+		for_each_online_node(nid) {
+			pg_data_t *pgdat = NODE_DATA(nid);
+
+			if (pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger)
+				continue;
+
+			pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger = true;
+			wake_up_interruptible(&pgdat->kcompactd_wait);
+		}
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * This is the entry point for compacting all nodes via
  * /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory
@@ -2750,7 +2774,8 @@ void compaction_unregister_node(struct n
 
 static inline bool kcompactd_work_requested(pg_data_t *pgdat)
 {
-	return pgdat->kcompactd_max_order > 0 || kthread_should_stop();
+	return pgdat->kcompactd_max_order > 0 || kthread_should_stop() ||
+		pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger;
 }
 
 static bool kcompactd_node_suitable(pg_data_t *pgdat)
@@ -2901,9 +2926,16 @@ static int kcompactd(void *p)
 	while (!kthread_should_stop()) {
 		unsigned long pflags;
 
+		/*
+		 * Avoid the unnecessary wakeup for proactive compaction
+		 * when it is disabled.
+		 */
+		if (!sysctl_compaction_proactiveness)
+			timeout = MAX_SCHEDULE_TIMEOUT;
 		trace_mm_compaction_kcompactd_sleep(pgdat->node_id);
 		if (wait_event_freezable_timeout(pgdat->kcompactd_wait,
-			kcompactd_work_requested(pgdat), timeout)) {
+			kcompactd_work_requested(pgdat), timeout) &&
+			!pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger) {
 
 			psi_memstall_enter(&pflags);
 			kcompactd_do_work(pgdat);
@@ -2938,6 +2970,8 @@ static int kcompactd(void *p)
 				timeout =
 				   default_timeout << COMPACT_MAX_DEFER_SHIFT;
 		}
+		if (unlikely(pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger))
+			pgdat->proactive_compact_trigger = false;
 	}
 
 	return 0;
