Hi, > https://gist.github.com/promach/65e9331d55a43a2815239430a28e29c6#file-circ_ring-c-L62 > racy if there are multiple consumers. > just call ptr_ring_consume_any.
If I modify pop_circ_queue() below to directly use ptr_ring_consume_any() without ptr_ring_empty_any() , I am afraid I am running into system crash due to NULL pointer deferencing for *item_pop: *item_pop = *((struct item *)ptr_ring_consume_any(buffer)); Just one silly beginner question, why will ptr_ring_empty_any() lead to data race problem ? inline int pop_circ_queue(struct ptr_ring * buffer, struct item * item_pop) { DEBUG_MSG(KERN_INFO "Before pop, head = %u , tail = %u\n", buffer->consumer_head, buffer->consumer_tail); /* extract one item struct containing two unsigned integers from the buffer */ *item_pop = *((struct item *)ptr_ring_consume_any(buffer)); if((item_pop != NULL) && (item_pop->val1 > 0)) { // val1 will never be zero since the event number starts from 1 (so, val1 in push_circ_queue() will not be zero, same case after pop_circ_queue()), and 0 is only possible during initialization, not during pop_circ_queue() DEBUG_MSG(KERN_INFO "val1 = %u , val2 = %u\n", item_pop->val1, item_pop->val2); DEBUG_MSG(KERN_INFO "After pop, head = %u , tail = %u\n", buffer->consumer_head, buffer->consumer_tail); return 0; } else { DEBUG_MSG(KERN_INFO "empty, nothing to pop from the ring\n"); return 1; } } Regards, Phung