On Thu, Jun 4, 2026 at 5:29 PM Jakub Kicinski [off-list ref] wrote:

dev->hwprov tracks the active hwtstamp provider for the device.
Make it ops protected (instance lock if the netdev driver opts
into holding instance lock around callbacks, otherwise rtnl_lock).

hwprov is written and read in:
 - drivers/net/phy/phy_device.c
    phydev and ops protection don't currently mix, add a comment
 - net/ethtool/
    as of now holds both rtnl lock and ops lock, this one will
    soon only hold one lock or the other

read in:
 - net/core/dev_ioctl.c
    holds both rtnl lock and ops lock
 - net/core/timestamping.c
    RCU reader

The new netdev_ops_lock_dereference() helper does not have
"compat" in the name. The name would be quite long and I think
in this case it should be obvious that we need _a_ lock.
netdev_lock_dereference() already exists and means dev->lock
is always expected.

Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>

Reviewed-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>