In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> There is NO guarantee that module use count == device open count. Never
>> has been, AFAIK. It just happens to work out that way on a lot of
>> pre-2.4 code.
>>
>> The kernel is free to bump the module reference count up and down as it
>> pleases. For example, if a driver creates a kernel thread, that will
>> increase its module usage count by one, for the duration of the kernel
>> thread's lifetime.
>>
>> The only rule is that you cannot unload a module until its use count it
>> zero.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
> I suppose. Look at what you just stated! This means that a reported
> value is now worthless.
Correct. And it was always worthless.
> To restate, somebody decided that we didn't need this reported value
> anymore. Therefore, it is okay to make it worthless.
It was always wothless besides == 0 means: you can unload me now.
> I don't agree. The De-facto standard has been that the module usage
> count is equal to the open count. This became the standard because
> of a long established history.
It's the same de-facto standard as bogo-mips ~= CPU MHz. It was so,
but it was neither intended nor documented so.
> This is one of the tools we use to verify that an entire system
> is functioning properly.
It was the wrong tool.
Christoph
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