locking while reading linked lists.

[Giacomo <delleceste@gmail.com>]

Good morning.
In a packet filter which i wrote on my own, i have a linked list of structures
which i read periodically by means of list_for_each_safe macro.
These structures have a timer, when it expires, the entry is deleted.
The timer can on the other way be updated by mod_timer.

The context of execution is that of a software interrupt (i attach my code at
netfilter hooks), and some times (after tenths of millions of packets filtered)
the system goes into panic.

I think i should put some locks when reading in list_for_each or when
deleting an item, or when updating timers.

I thought it was not necessary because of the atomic context.

In fact, should i use read/write_lock? Or spinlocks?

Should i put the locks when reading in list_for_each, when adding an entry
with list_add, when deleting with list_del and also when mod_timer?

I verified that when i put those locks, things go better, but do i need them
so many in my code?

Thanks in advance

Giacomo.





--

Giacomo S.
http://www.giacomos.it

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Running `IPFIRE-wall` on debian GNU/Linux
http://www.giacomos.it/ipfire
http://www.debian.org

mailto:
delleceste@gmail.com
giacomo.strangolino@elettra.trieste.it
jacum@libero.it

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