In message [off-list ref] you write:
From: Stephen Hemminger [off-list ref]
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 09:08:20 -0700
On Sat, 03 May 2003 14:07:41 +1000
Rusty Russell [off-list ref] wrote:
> But Alexey said you can only call unregister_netdev from module
> unload, ie. if not a module, it can't be unloaded, hence no refcount
> needed. I wrote the above paragraph because I'm not sure if I
> understood Alexey correctly?
There are several flavors of pseudo-network devices like bridging
and VLAN that dynamically create/destroy netdev's even when they
are not modules.
I think you'll understand what Alexey/Rusty are saying better
if you consider statically compiled kernel code as a module with
an implicit non-zero reference count :-)
Yes, but his point is valid. We *do* want to destroy netdev's at
random times, not just from module cleanup code. Hotplug, for
example.
So me saying "just rely on the owner refcnt" was wrong.
Rusty.
--
Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell.