From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760668AbYCDDwD (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:52:03 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754772AbYCDDvx (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:51:53 -0500 Received: from ozlabs.org ([203.10.76.45]:60300 "EHLO ozlabs.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753170AbYCDDvx (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:51:53 -0500 From: Rusty Russell To: "Jike Song" Subject: Re: Module loading/unloading and "The Stop Machine" Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 14:51:09 +1100 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405) Cc: "Max Krasnyansky" , "Andrew Morton" , LKML , "Linus Torvalds" References: <47ABC08C.8010101@qualcomm.com> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200803041451.10312.rusty@rustcorp.com.au> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thursday 14 February 2008 16:02:06 Jike Song wrote: > On 2/8/08, Max Krasnyansky wrote: > > Hi Rusty, > > > > I was hopping you could answer a couple of questions about module > > loading/unloading and the stop machine. > > I'm curious to know why it is called `stop machine', which is a queer > name without any relationship with its function. Hi Jike, I'm surprised.. stunned even, to hear you say this. stop_machine stops the machine: every CPU is frozen with interrupts disabled. I am having trouble thinking of a better name. "schedule_a_thread_on_every_cpu_and_then_disable_interrupts" is a little long, and describes the implementation not the effect. "run_and_make_sure_no_cpus_have_preempt_disabled" also fails the "will Linus flame me?" test, I think. "freeze_machine" has connotations of the freezer, which is completely different from this. "do_machine" is shorter, but sounds vaguely naughty. > Regards, > Jike Perhaps you were angling for "jike_machine"? It's kind of catchy, but I don't think that patch will be accepted even if you pushed it as a git tree. Cheers, Rusty.