bkl cleanup in do_sysctl

Josh Aas
2004-08-10T17:01:10Z

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on replacing the bkl in do_sysctl
with a localized spin lock that protects the sysctl structures. Instead
of grabbing the bkl, anyone that needs to mess with those values could
grab the localized lock (1 to protect all structures). Such a localized
lock would allow us to get rid of bkl usage in at least one other place
as well (do_coredump). In order to do this though, we would have to make
sure all code that grabs the bkl instead of the localized lock while
using sysctl values switches to the new lock. Might be a big job, but
perhaps it would be a good one to start after 2.6.8 is out the door.

Thoughts? Comments?

--
Josh Aas
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
Linux System Software
651-683-3068