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Date:   Wed, 21 Jun 2000 05:41:58 +0000
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From:   Andrew Morton <andrewm@uow.edu.au>
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To:     Keith Owens <kaos@ocs.com.au>
CC:     "netdev@oss.sgi.com" <netdev@oss.sgi.com>
Subject: Re: modular net drivers, take 2
References: Your message of "Wed,
            21 Jun 2000 04:24:01 GMT." <39504361.81F03943@uow.edu.au> <13370.961564335@kao2.melbourne.sgi.com>
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Keith Owens wrote:
> 
> ...
> >sys_delete_module()
> >{
> >        ...
> >       spin_lock(&module_deletion_lock);
> >        blocked_cpus = 1 << smp_processor_id();
> >        while (blocked_cpus != ((1 << smp_num_cpus) - 1))
> >               ;
> >       {
> >               I think the only code whcih needs to go in
> >                here is the call to vfree(module).
> 
> sys_delete_module() -> free_module() -> mod->cleanup() -> module_exit()
> which is entered with module_deletion_lock held.  You just constrained
> all module cleanup code to never sleep - no chance.

I was proposing that the global CPU-grab only need surround the
vfree().  It's more of a way of getting all CPUs into a known state than
a lock.

So sys_delete_module would be more like:

sys_delete_module()
{
	free_module_no_vfree();

        spin_lock(&module_deletion_lock);

	/* Something like this... */
        for_each_task(tsk)
	{
		if (tsk->state == TASK_RUNNING)
			tsk->need_resched = 1;
	}

        blocked_cpus = 1 << smp_processor_id();
        while (blocked_cpus != ((1 << smp_num_cpus) - 1))
                ;
	vfree(module);
        spin_unlock(&module_deletion_lock);
}

> For sys_delete_module() to "grab" the entire machine it has to exclude
> all processors from entering the module being unloaded (not too
> difficult),

OK, they're all known to be spinning on module_deletion_lock.

> to verify that no processor is currently executing the code
> pages (a bit harder)

OK, they're all running in wait_while_unloading()

> and that no suspended process or timer queue will
> ever pop its stack and return into those code pages (the really hard
> bit).

I think any code which got into a situation like this when the module
refcount is zero would be rather broken.