Re: [PATCH] 3c59x: shorten timer period for slave devices

[David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>]

From: Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:02:56 +0100

> Le mardi 14 février 2012 à 14:51 -0600, Dan Williams a écrit :
>> On Tue, 2012-02-14 at 21:27 +0100, Eric Dumazet wrote:
>> > Jean Delvare reported bonding on top of 3c59x adapters was not detecting
>> > network cable removal fast enough.
>> > 
>> > 3c59x indeed uses a 60 seconds timer to check link status if carrier is
>> > on, and 5 seconds if carrier is off.
>> > 
>> > This patch reduces timer period to 5 seconds if device is a bonding
>> > slave.
>> 
>> Maybe for posterity give some rationale as to why we feel we can reduce
>> it to 5 seconds for slaves instead of reducing the timer period in
>> general?  If you weren't party to this discussion that won't be apparent
>> from the commit log.
> 
> Apparently, Andrew Morton considered firing a timer every 5 seconds was
> too expensive. I am not sure we want to state this (probably old fact)
> in the changelog. Anyway are these slow NICS still used in 2011 ? ;)

At least Jean Delvare is :-)

I'm going to apply this as-is, if you configure bonding on one of these
chips you expect it to work.  And working is more important than optimal.