From: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 15:55:30 +0800

Calling skb_orphan like this should be forbidden.  Apart from the
problems already raised, it is a sign that the driver is trying to
paper over a more serious issue of not cleaning up skb's timely.

Yes skb_orphan will work for the cases where calling the skb
destructor allows forward progress, but for the cases where you
really need to the skb to be freed (e.g., iSCSI or Xen), this
simply doesn't work.

So anytime someone tries to propose such a solution it is a sign
that they have bigger problems.

Agreed, but alas we are foaming at the mouth until we have a truly
usable alternative.

In particular the case of handling a device without usable TX
completion event indications is still quite troublesome.