Add cycle_kernel_lock()
authorJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Sun, 18 May 2008 20:27:41 +0000 (14:27 -0600)
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:05:53 +0000 (14:05 -0600)
commit0b2806768899dba5967bcd4a3b93eaed9a1dc4f3
treec9e7762d9b236883f4a23a170919317a6e7c93c7
parent6606470dd1d628878383c96d10b52a77986ddac7
Add cycle_kernel_lock()

A number of driver functions are so obviously trivial that they do not need
the big kernel lock - at least not overtly.  It turns out that the
acquisition of the BKL in driver open() functions can perform a sort of
poor-hacker's serialization function, delaying the open operation until the
driver is certain to have completed its initialization.  Add a simple
cycle_kernel_lock() function for these cases to make it clear that there is
no need to *hold* the BKL, just to be sure that we can acquire it.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
include/linux/smp_lock.h