That field will contain internal state information which is not going to be exposed to anything outside the core code - except via accessor functions. I'm tired of everyone fiddling in irq_desc.status. core_internal_state__do_not_mess_with_it is clear enough, annoying to type and easy to grep for. Offenders will be tracked down and slapped with stinking trouts. Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner --- include/linux/irqdesc.h | 3 ++- kernel/irq/internals.h | 6 ++++++ 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) Index: linux-2.6-tip/include/linux/irqdesc.h =================================================================== --- linux-2.6-tip.orig/include/linux/irqdesc.h +++ linux-2.6-tip/include/linux/irqdesc.h @@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ struct timer_rand_state; * @handle_irq: highlevel irq-events handler [if NULL, __do_IRQ()] * @action: the irq action chain * @status: status information + * @core_internal_state__do_not_mess_with_it: core internal status information * @depth: disable-depth, for nested irq_disable() calls * @wake_depth: enable depth, for multiple set_irq_wake() callers * @irq_count: stats field to detect stalled irqs @@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ struct irq_desc { irq_flow_handler_t handle_irq; struct irqaction *action; /* IRQ action list */ unsigned int status; /* IRQ status */ - + unsigned int core_internal_state__do_not_mess_with_it; unsigned int depth; /* nested irq disables */ unsigned int wake_depth; /* nested wake enables */ unsigned int irq_count; /* For detecting broken IRQs */ Index: linux-2.6-tip/kernel/irq/internals.h =================================================================== --- linux-2.6-tip.orig/kernel/irq/internals.h +++ linux-2.6-tip/kernel/irq/internals.h @@ -1,8 +1,14 @@ /* * IRQ subsystem internal functions and variables: + * + * Do not ever include this file from anything else than + * kernel/irq/. Do not even think about using any information outside + * of this file for your non core code. */ #include +#define istate core_internal_state__do_not_mess_with_it + extern int noirqdebug; /* -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/