Brice Goglin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I am trying to understand whether I can setup a skb destructor in my > code (which is basically a protocol above dev_queue_xmit() and co). From > what I see in many parts in the current kernel code, the "protocol" (I > mean, the one who actually creates the skb) may setup a destructor.
The socket layer generally needs it for its own accounting. Unless you never pass it up you can't use it. > However, I also see some places where some low-level drivers might be > using a destructor too , without apparently checking whether an upper > layer already uses one. For instance, write_ofld_wr() in cxgb3/sge.c. Likely a bug. Normally that should not slip past code review. > found some old threads about adding support for multiple destructors but > I don't see anything like this in the current kernel. > > So, I'd like to have a clear statement about who's allowed to use a > destructor :) The traditional standpoint was that having your own large skb pools is not recommended because you won't interact well with the rest of the system running low on memory and you tieing up memory. Essentially you would recreate all the problems traditional Unix systems have with fixed size mbuf pools. Linux always used a more dynamic and flexible allocate-only-as-you-need approach even when it can have a little more overhead in managing IOMMUs etc. These days there are shrinker callbacks that would in theory allow you to handle this, but it would be likely still hard to implement correctly. -Andi - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
