Re: [PATCH net] net: ibm: emac: mal: fix potential system hang in mal_remove()

[Jacob Keller]

On 6/8/2026 5:36 PM, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Jun 2026 16:03:43 -0700 Rosen Penev wrote:
>>>> -     if (!list_empty(&mal->list))
>>>> +     if (!list_empty(&mal->list)) {
>>>> +             napi_disable(&mal->napi);
>>>>               /* This is *very* bad */
>>>>               WARN(1, KERN_EMERG
>>>>                      "mal%d: commac list is not empty on remove!\n",
>>>>                      mal->index);  
>>>
>>> This one doesn't make sense to me. The list_empty check does a WARN()
>>> indicating that this is not supposed to happen.
>>>
>>> This implies that list_empty should be true, otherwise we'd see a WARN
>>> every time mal_remove is called.
>>>
>>> But in that case, we'd have been calling napi_disable incorrectly in
>>> most cases where it was previously unsafe according to your claim.
>>>
>>> At best, this list_empty check is the wrong way to tell if the napi is
>>> disabled, at worst, this whole change is pointless.  
>> I asked the AI. It doesn't agree:
> 
> FTR I agree with Jake, the patch seems to indicate bigger structural
> issues. Then again I don't want to encourage the stream of patches
> to this driver so let me just apply this..

I don't see how applying this discourages the stream of patches?
Wouldn't that be encouraging?

Or I guess the patch "does" fix something (an extra call to
napi_disable) and you don't want to encourage a raff of future changes
to try and fix the overall structural issues? I guess that makes sense.

I still don't follow how this fixes