cvs commit: src/sys/net if.c if.h if_ethersubr.c if_var.h src/sys/net80211 ieee80211_output.c ieee80211_proto.c

[Robert Watson]

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, Robert Watson wrote:

>   This is intended to provide increased compatibility for non-MPSAFE
>   network device drivers in the presence of Giant-free operation via
>   asynchronous dispatch.  However, this commit does not mark any network
>   interfaces as IFF_NEEDSGIANT.

BTW, this idea was suggested by Doug Rabson at the FreeBSD Developer
Summit in Boston.  The approach seems to work for static interfaces, but
there's a race condition during interface detach that needs to be
addressed before it can be used for things like USB ethernet (which is one
of the most important driver types we need it for).

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Principal Research Scientist, McAfee Research