Re: [PATCH 06/11] uml ubd driver: ubd_io_lock usage fixup

From: Jens Axboe
Date: Mon Oct 30 2006 - 03:25:32 EST


On Sun, Oct 29 2006, Blaisorblade wrote:
> Add some comments about requirements for ubd_io_lock and expand its use.
>
> When an irq signals that the "controller" (i.e. another thread on the host,
> which does the actual requests and is the only one blocked on I/O on the
> host) has done some work, we call again the request function ourselves
> (do_ubd_request).
>
> We now do that with ubd_io_lock held - that's useful to protect against
> concurrent calls to elv_next_request and so on.

Not only useful, required, as I think I complained about a year or more
ago :-)

> XXX: Maybe we shouldn't call at all the request function. Input needed on
> this. Are we supposed to plug and unplug the queue? That code "indirectly"
> does that by setting a flag, called do_ubd, which makes the request function
> return (it's a residual of 2.4 block layer interface).

Sometimes you need to. I'd probably just remove the do_ubd check and
always recall the request function when handling completions, it's
easier and safe.

--
Jens Axboe

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