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To:     Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
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Subject: Re: [patch] 3c59x.c for 2.2.17
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Alan Cox wrote:
> 
> Its much cleaner
> if the last ring buffer slot is about to be used and the new alloc fails to
> simply recycle the buffer and throw the received packet away.

Agreed.  Mark Hemment's fix basically did this.  He reserved an
'emergency' skbuff and never gave it away.  I was not attracted to it
because it handles a _very_ rare case by adding complexity to a core
code path upon which I wish to severaly beat later this year.

> Several drivers simply require the ring remains full and they are a lot cleaner
> for it.

I don't know about the other drivers, but I think the way Donald's 3c59x
handles the replenishment of the skbuffs is quite delightful.  The fact
that I could just call the rx ISR at a random point in time and have
everything sort itself out is testament to this.