From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1759848AbYETAV0 (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 May 2008 20:21:26 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752011AbYETAVR (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 May 2008 20:21:17 -0400 Received: from vena.lwn.net ([206.168.112.25]:54792 "EHLO vena.lwn.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751478AbYETAVR (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 May 2008 20:21:17 -0400 To: "Mike Frysinger" Cc: "Jonathan Corbet" , "Linus Torvalds" , "Ingo Molnar" , "Andrew Morton" , "Peter Zijlstra" , "Thomas Gleixner" , "Alan Cox" , "Alexander Viro" , "Arnd Bergmann" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3, RFC] misc char dev BKL pushdown From: corbet@lwn.net (Jonathan Corbet) In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 19 May 2008 20:07:59 EDT." <8bd0f97a0805191707k597e4f48i9c54488777fdd91b@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 18:21:16 -0600 Message-ID: <30821.1211242876@vena.lwn.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mike Frysinger wrote: > this open func already has a spinlock protecting it. doesnt that mean > we dont need the bkl in it ? The existence of a spinlock is a good sign. But, until somebody has looked at the code and verified that said lock is really protecting everything, it's best to leave the BKL protection (which has always been there, just at a higher level) in place. jon