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Date:   Mon, 19 Jun 2000 20:19:06 -0400 (EDT)
From:   Donald Becker <becker@scyld.com>
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To:     Andrew Morton <andrewm@uow.edu.au>
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Subject: Re: modular net drivers
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On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Andrew Morton wrote:

> As you may have noticed, Al Viro is running around the kernel getting
> rid of MOD_INC_USE_COUNT and MOD_DEC_USE_COUNT.  His long-term plan
> is to remove MOD_INC_USE_COUNT and MOD_DEC_USE_COUNT completely.
> I'm looking into the changes required for the net drivers.

Hmmm, this is curious.
Should not the "feature freeze" phase come well after the "interface freeze"?
This is pretty obviously an interface change.

> - All 2.4-only netdrivers can have all their MOD_DEC and MOD_INC calls
>   removed.  All that twisty logic to keep track of the counts can be
>   tossed.  A single
> 
> 	SET_NETDEVICE_OWNER(dev);

"Twisty logic"?  Most of the drivers have straight-forward use counts.
How is this new method any simpler?  If anything, it seems to be more
complex without any obvious benefit.

Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Annapolis MD 21403