Re: netdev ioctl & dev_base_lock : bad idea ?

["David S. Miller" <davem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 19:48:49 +1100
Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I suppose there is a good reason we can't just use the rtnl_sem for
> these guys, though why isn't dev_base_lock a read/write semaphore
> instead of a spinlock ? At least on ppc, I don't think there's any
> overhead in the normal path, and this is not on a very critical path
> anyway, is it ?

It can't be a semphore because it is taken in packet processing,
and thus softint handling, paths.