Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752156AbWCJArI (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 19:47:08 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752155AbWCJArH (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 19:47:07 -0500 Received: from mx.pathscale.com ([64.160.42.68]:38799 "EHLO mx.pathscale.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752149AbWCJArD (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 19:47:03 -0500 Subject: Re: [PATCH 9 of 20] ipath - char devices for diagnostics and lightweight subnet management From: "Bryan O'Sullivan" To: Roland Dreier Cc: rolandd@cisco.com, gregkh@suse.de, akpm@osdl.org, davem@davemloft.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, openib-general@openib.org In-Reply-To: References: <28bb276205de498d0b5c.1141950939@eng-12.pathscale.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: PathScale, Inc. Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:47:02 -0800 Message-Id: <1141951622.10693.85.camel@serpentine.pathscale.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 541 Lines: 15 On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 16:45 -0800, Roland Dreier wrote: > So why is ipath_sma_alive an atomic_t (and why isn't it static)? > You never modify ipath_sma_alive outside of your spinlock, so I don't > see what having it be atomic buys you. It's read outside of this file, without a lock held.