Re: [PATCH] Avoid overflows in kernel/time.c

From: Adrian Bunk
Date: Fri Nov 30 2007 - 19:33:57 EST


On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 04:19:51PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> When the conversion factor between jiffies and milli- or microseconds
> is not a single multiply or divide, as for the case of HZ == 300, we
> currently do a multiply followed by a divide. The intervening
> result, however, is subject to overflows, especially since the
> fraction is not simplified (for HZ == 300, we multiply by 300 and
> divide by 1000).
>...
> kernel/Makefile | 8 +++
> kernel/time.c | 29 +++++++++---
> kernel/timeconst.bc | 123 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 3 files changed, 152 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 kernel/timeconst.bc
>...

I have read the hep text, but are the advantages of HZ == 300 really
visible or was this more theoretical?

In the latter case, we might remove the HZ == 300 choice instead.

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/