Messages in this thread |  | | | Subject | Re: [announce] "kill the Big Kernel Lock (BKL)" tree | | From | (Jonathan Corbet) | | Date | Wed, 14 May 2008 16:07:47 -0600 |
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
> I don't think there are *that* many. I found only 83 instances of
> "register_chrdev()" in the kernel, so the open methods should be pretty
> limited.
There's the drivers calling cdev_add() directly as well - another
40ish. Still not a huge list, I guess.
> So it literally should be:
> - remove one lock_kernel/unlock_kernel pair in fs/char_dev.c
> - add max 83 pairs in the places that register those things
> - external modules will need to add it themselves some day.
This is all certainly doable, but it leaves me with one concern: there
will be no signal to external module maintainers that the change needs
to be made. So, beyond doubt, quite a few of them will just continue to
be shipped unfixed - and they will still run. If any of them actually
*need* the BKL, something awful may happen to somebody someday.
jon
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