Re: [PATCH 01/17] MTD: create lockless versions of {get,put}_mtd_device This will be used to resolve deadlock in block translation layer.

[Maxim Levitsky <maximlevitsky@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 2010-02-09 at 18:14 +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote: 
> On Tue, 2010-02-09 at 18:57 +0200, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> > These functions can be used as long as we don't need access to global mtd table, but have
> > a pointer to the mtd device.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Maxim Levitsky <maximlevitsky@gmail.com>
> > ---
> >  drivers/mtd/mtdcore.c   |   60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
> >  include/linux/mtd/mtd.h |    3 +-
> >  2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
> 
> > +int __get_mtd_device(struct mtd_info *mtd)
> > +{
> > +	int err;
> > +
> > +	if (!try_module_get(mtd->owner))
> > +		return -ENODEV;
> > +
> > +	if (mtd->get_device) {
> > +
> > +		err = mtd->get_device(mtd);
> > +
> > +		if (err) {
> > +			module_put(mtd->owner);
> > +			return err;
> > +		}
> > +	}
> > +	mtd->usecount++;
> > +	return 0;
> >  }
> 
> > +void __put_mtd_device(struct mtd_info *mtd)
> > +{
> > +	--mtd->usecount;
> > +	BUG_ON(mtd->usecount < 0);
> > +
> >  	if (mtd->put_device)
> >  		mtd->put_device(mtd);
> >  
> >  	module_put(mtd->owner);
> >  }
> 
> That's racy, use kref.
> 
Couldn't agree with you more.

However, these functions aren't intended for general use, and probably
will be used by mtd translation layer only. I do have a lock that
protects concurrent use of these functions.

Thus, I better add a comment about this?

Best regards,
Maxim Levitsky