Re: Re-entrant code in network drivers (cross-post)

[Seth Arnold <sarnold@wirex.com>]

On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 04:20:12PM -0600, Amit Kucheria wrote:
> I am trying to understand the issues in writing a driver that is 
> re-entrant. What are the locking issues involved (if any)?

I've never done network device drivers .. however, there are gobs of the
things in the kernel source tree, so hopefully they can provide good
examples.

I think the first thing to do when programming re-entrant code is to
avoid 'static' storage of variables in your functions. If there are any
datastructures you would use from several different points, be sure to
use proper locking techniques to synchronize access. (See
Documentation/spinlocks.txt for locking details.)

And, don't forget about the huge body of source code out there to study
from. :)

-- 
"I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling
to accept responsibility for their own actions, or that they are
so eager to regulate everyone else's." -- Kee Hinckley

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