From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Arnd Bergmann Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC] BKL not necessary in cpuid_open Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 18:05:11 +0200 Message-ID: <200910091805.11249.arnd@arndb.de> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: tglx@linutronix.de, Ingo Molnar , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-rt-users@vger.kernel.org, Clark Williams To: John Kacur Return-path: In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-rt-users.vger.kernel.org On Wednesday 07 October 2009, John Kacur wrote: > > I've been staring at the BKL lock in cpuid_open, and I can't see what it > is protecting. However, I may have missed something - even something > obvious, so comments are welcome. > Hi John, In general, the lock_kernel() calls in any chardev open() file operation are the result of the BKL pushdown by Jon Corbet and others, which has happened some time last year[1]. I'd assume that the vast majority is not needed at all, so these are an easy target for removal. Arnd [1] http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0805.2/0257.html