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Message-ID: <20080506125008.GA2217@solarflare.com>
Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 13:50:09 +0100
From: Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-net-drivers@...arflare.com
Subject: Re: New driver "sfc" for Solarstorm SFC4000 controller.
Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 2 May 2008 17:05:35 +0100 Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com> wrote:
>
> > > Oh dear, it found
> > >
> > > #5617: FILE: drivers/net/sfc/falcon.c:1877:
> > > + if (*(volatile u32 *)dma_done == FALCON_STATS_DONE)
> > >
> > > which was naughty of you. Perhaps this was already discussed in review
> > > with the people who actually know what they're talking about.
> >
> > There wasn't any specific discussion of this. Is it wrong? We want to
> > prevent the compiler from caching *dma_done, which is itself written by DMA.
>
> Documentation/volatile-considered-harmful.txt has some dicussion.
Looks like we should be using something like:
while (*dma_done != FALCON_STATS_DONE)
cpu_relax();
But then how do we time-out?
> > > > +static inline int efx_init_rx_buffer_page(struct efx_rx_queue *rx_queue,
> > > > + struct efx_rx_buffer *rx_buf)
> > > > +{
> > > > + struct efx_nic *efx = rx_queue->efx;
> > > > + int bytes, space, offset;
> > > > +
> > > > + bytes = efx->rx_buffer_len - EFX_PAGE_IP_ALIGN;
> > > > +
> > > > + /* If there is space left in the previously allocated page,
> > > > + * then use it. Otherwise allocate a new one */
> > > > + rx_buf->page = rx_queue->buf_page;
> > > > + if (rx_buf->page == NULL) {
> > > > + dma_addr_t dma_addr;
> > > > +
> > > > + rx_buf->page = alloc_pages(__GFP_COLD | __GFP_COMP | GFP_ATOMIC,
> > > > + efx->rx_buffer_order);
> > >
> > > I don't think we should be using the open-coded __GFP_COMP here. That's
> > > more an mm-internal thing.
> >
> > What's the alternative?
>
> Just remove the __GFP_COMP, I expect. __GFP_COMP will ask the page
> allocator to add extra book-keeping info to the pageframe (via
> prep_compound_page()). I doubt if the driver uses that information.
It looks like this flag was used by mistake, based on past experience with
a driver that needed buffers to be mapped into user space. The original
author of the RX page-allocation code is away at the moment, so I will
have to wait to ask why he used it.
Ben.
--
Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
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