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SubjectRe: global kernel lock
   Date: 	Sat, 14 Nov 1998 02:08:25 +1100
From: Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>

However, it looks like with an SMP machine that two processes can't
concurrently read, say, a regular file and a fast (non-sleeping)
device, since only one process can own the global kernel lock. I was a
little surprised at this, since I thought we'd pretty much gotten rid
of the global kernel lock in 2.1.x. Although, I have to admit I
haven't been paying close attention.

Anything which does anything referencing the vfs at all will need to
have the global kernel lock the entire time still.

Most inode only operations are protected with spinlocks, but not all.
Same for some dentry stuff, and again not all.

Don't expect things to "loosen up" until 2.3.x :-)

Later,
David S. Miller
davem@dm.cobaltmicro.com

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