From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755262AbXKWBFK (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:05:10 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752015AbXKWBE7 (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:04:59 -0500 Received: from 74-93-104-97-Washington.hfc.comcastbusiness.net ([74.93.104.97]:47296 "EHLO sunset.davemloft.net" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751670AbXKWBE6 (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:04:58 -0500 Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:04:58 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <20071122.170458.260273849.davem@davemloft.net> To: wferi@niif.hu Cc: shemminger@linux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: network driver usage count From: David Miller In-Reply-To: <87myt7nt0k.fsf@szonett.ki.iif.hu> References: <87hcjf9yd4.fsf@tac.ki.iif.hu> <20071121130445.569d2176@freepuppy.rosehill> <87myt7nt0k.fsf@szonett.ki.iif.hu> X-Mailer: Mew version 5.2 on Emacs 22.1 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: Wagner Ferenc Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:16:59 +0100 > Hmm, that would warrant nuking all the reference counts on every > driver. That's not true. When packets are in flight, references go to the device and the device cannot be unloaded until those references get dropped. This behavior makes sense because otherwise you have to figure out the myriad of references (each ipv4 address, each ipv6 address, routes, ARP entries, etc.) just to perform such a simple operation. If you do not mean to unload the device, simply do not do it.