dev.c -- dev_queue_xmit-- Is the comment misleading or is it a bug??

From: Kumar, Sharath
Date: Thu May 27 2004 - 09:23:19 EST


Hi, (Please mark a cc to my id in your reply as I am not subscribed to this list Thanks in advance :-))

I am attaching the snippet for dev_queue_xmit code in net/core/dev.c

The issue I am trying to point out here is about calling this function from an interrupt context.
(The comment clearly says that I am right in doing so)

So this function has to be re-entrant if it can be called from an interrupt which means
q->enqueue() also needs to be re-entrant.

The enqueue function by default is mapped to pfifo_fast_enqueue (net/sched/sch_generic.c)
unfortunately the code in this function updates the transmit queue and qdisc->q.qlen
without disabling interrupts.

So If I call dev_queue_xmit from a non-interrupt context and if I have an interrupt which again makes
a call to dev_queue_xmit(on the same device), then my transmit queue may be left in inconsistent state :-(

Either the comment is misleading or I am missing something here.

/**
* dev_queue_xmit - transmit a buffer
* @skb: buffer to transmit
*
* Queue a buffer for transmission to a network device. The caller must
* have set the device and priority and built the buffer before calling
* this function. The function can be called from an interrupt.
*
* A negative errno code is returned on a failure. A success does not
* guarantee the frame will be transmitted as it may be dropped due
* to congestion or traffic shaping.
*/

int dev_queue_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb)
{
..
..
/* Grab device queue */
spin_lock_bh(&dev->queue_lock);
q = dev->qdisc;
if (q->enqueue) {
rc = q->enqueue(skb, q);


Regards.
-Sharath.

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