Re: kernel stack size

[Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>]

On Sat, 2005-04-02 at 20:37 +0100, Al Viro wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 02:04:11PM -0500, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> > You can also use globally static variables too. But this makes for
> > non-reentry code.
> > 
> > Sometimes I don't feel that a kmalloc is worth it, and if the function
> > in question for the driver would seldom have problems with reentry, I
> > use a statically defined global, and protect it with spin_locks. If
> > these can also be used in interrupt context, you need to use the
> > spin_lock_irqsave variants.  But don't do this if the critical section
> > has long latencies.
> 
> ... and the first time copy_from_user() blocks under your spinlock
> you will get a nice shiny deadlock.

I forgot that he mentioned that this was for ioctls. I then use
semaphores if I need to access userspace. But if it just needs to modify
data around areas that only the kernel uses, without access to
userspace, than I use spinlocks.

I admit you really need to know what you're doing to use this method. If
I believe that a kmalloc would be too expensive, then I use the locking
of static variables. But each situation is different and I try to use
the best method for the occasion.

-- Steve