HEADS UP: IFF_NEEDSGIANT consumers to be disabled, removed

[Julian Elischer]

Robert Watson wrote:
> 
> (Bcc to arch@)
> 
> On Mon, 26 May 2008, Robert Watson wrote:
> 
>> Just to keep track of things:
>>
>>  http://wiki.freebsd.org/NONMPSAFE_DEORBIT
> 
> Delayed by about six months, the merge and switch to the new USB stack 
> in 8.x means that we're now fairly close to being able to pick up this 
> project again. The goal remains to eliminate IFF_NEEDSGIANT, which is 
> (mostly) the last piece of non-MPSAFE compatibility infrastructure in 
> the network stack in -CURRENT. I removed support for non-MPSAFE network 
> protocols before 7.0, and this is the support for non-MPSAFE network 
> device drivers.  As of the current moment in HEAD, the following drivers 
> are flagged wth IFF_NEEDSGIANT:
> 
> General network device drivers that still require Giant:
> 
>   if_ar
>   if_ray
>   if_sl
>   if_sr

if_sr and if_ar are really simple and could probably
be converted "trivially".. especially if
their netgraph code is used.

however I wonder if anyone still has that hardware (they are
drivers for two sync serial cards).

John Hay must have had some when he wrote the driver...

> 
> Old USB network device drivers:
> 
>   if_axe
>   if_cdce
>   if_cue
>   if_kue
>   if_rue
>   if_rum
>   if_udav
>   if_upgt
>   if_ural
>   if_urtw
>   if_zyd
> 
> Network device drivers intimately tangled with the old TTY code:
> 
>   if_cx
>   if_ppp
>   lf_sl
> 
> A network device driver that appears to conditionally use IFF_NEEDSGIANT 
> for the purposes of (sometimes) interacting with the old USB code:
> 
>   if_ndis
> 
> The following schedule is proposed, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong 
> with the new USB code in the next few weeks, and remaining nits relating 
> to USB network and 802.11 drivers are handled:
> 
> 16 February 2009    HEADS UP to lists (this e-mail)
> 01 March 2009        Disable build of all IFF_NEEDSGIANT drivers in 8.x
> 01 April 2009        Remove all IFF_NEEDSGIANT drivers from 8.x
> 
> In the next couple of weeks, I'd like to resolve the status of (and 
> eliminate) the if_ndis conditional use of IFF_NEEDSGIANT.  There's also 
> a chance that if_sl will get updated by Ed and myself to work with the 
> new locking and TTY world orders -- the lock is easy, but the TTY update 
> takes a bit of work. Perhaps someone will feel moved to do this for 
> if_ppp and possibly if_cx as well.
> 
> Robert N M Watson
> Computer Laboratory
> University of Cambridge
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