Re: [patch] Use kref for struct file.f_count refcounter

[Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>]

Ravikiran G Thirumalai <kiran@in.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jul 26, 2004 at 10:30:36PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > Ravikiran G Thirumalai <kiran@in.ibm.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > This patch makes use of the kref api for the 
> > >  struct file.f_count refcounter.  This depends
> > >  on the new kref apis kref_read and kref_put_last
> > >  added by means of my earlier patch today.
> > 
> > Sorry, but I can't really see how this improves anything.  It'll slow
> > things down infinitesimally and it forces the reader to look elsewhere in
> > the tree to see what's going on.
> > 
> 
> It doesn't improve anything in terms of performance or anything.  It just
> makes use of the kref api for refcounting.  My next patchset will be to
> extend the kref api to do lockfree refcounting, and eliminate
> use of files_struct.file_lock on the reader side (lock free fd lookup) .  

That would have been a useful thing to have mentioned in the description of
these patches, no?

> I can do a patch to just extend kref api for lockfree refcounting and
> use them for for the lock free fd lookup patch directly if you like to see
> it that way.

uh, whatever you think is best will suit at this time.

Please send all the patches, (as in: every single one) at the same time,
with complete descriptions.  Thanks.