Stephen Hemminger wrote:

On Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:26:43 -0800
Ben Greear [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

Stephen Hemminger wrote:

quoted

Subject: [PATCH] Avoid race between network down and sysfs


Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <redacted>

--- a/net/core/net-sysfs.c	2009-02-26 08:36:18.000000000 -0800
+++ b/net/core/net-sysfs.c	2009-02-26 08:37:51.000000000 -0800

@@ -77,7 +77,9 @@ static ssize_t netdev_store(struct devic
 	if (endp == buf)
 		goto err;
 
-	rtnl_lock();
+	if (!rtnl_trylock())
+		return -ERESTARTSYS;
+
 	if (dev_isalive(net)) {
 		if ((ret = (*set)(net, new)) == 0)
 			ret = len;

I can test this to see if it fixes my problem.  Are the above lines the
entirety of the patch?

yes

We should be able to avoid the restart looping in most cases,
we only need to do this while unregistration is in progress.