Skip to content
Commit c817a67e authored by Russell King's avatar Russell King Committed by Greg Kroah-Hartman
Browse files

kobject: delayed kobject release: help find buggy drivers



Implement debugging for kobject release functions.  kobjects are
reference counted, so the drop of the last reference to them is not
predictable. However, the common case is for the last reference to be
the kobject's removal from a subsystem, which results in the release
function being immediately called.

This can hide subtle bugs, which can occur when another thread holds a
reference to the kobject at the same time that a kobject is removed.
This results in the release method being delayed.

In order to make these kinds of problems more visible, the following
patch implements a delayed release; this has the effect that the
release function will be out of order with respect to the removal of
the kobject in the same manner that it would be if a reference was
being held.

This provides us with an easy way to allow driver writers to debug
their drivers and fix otherwise hidden problems.

Signed-off-by: default avatarRussell King <rmk+kernel@arm.linux.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: default avatarGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
parent 7c42721f
Loading
Loading
Loading
Loading
0% Loading or .
You are about to add 0 people to the discussion. Proceed with caution.
Finish editing this message first!
Please register or to comment