Re: [PATCH] remove BKL from drivers' release functions

David C. Hansen
2001-11-28T23:34:04Z

Alan Cox wrote:

>>drivers' release functions. The release functions are already
>>serialized in the VFS code by an atomic_t which guarantees that each
>>
>The release function was only partially serialized - what stops a release
>and an open racing each other ? That in several cases was why the lock
>was there.
>
Nothing, because the BKL is not held for all opens anymore. In most of
the cases that we addressed, the BKL was in release _only_, not in open
at all. There were quite a few drivers where we added a spinlock, or
used atomic operations to keep open from racing with release.