> This problem will need some deeper surgery probably > involving > removal of the refcounting.
Refcounting may be OK if used consistently. It is not OK when some pointers are ref-counted, but other (in serial_table) are not (like it is in the current version). As for the deeper surgery, what do you think about my earlier suggestion to start by rewriting usb_serial_probe to fully initialize usb_serial before it is added to serial_table? So, instead of the current: 1. create_serial ... 2. mutex_lock(&table_lock); 3. get_free_serial (which inserts serial to serial_table) ... 4. initializes serial 5. mutex_unlock(&table_lock); we will get: 1. create_serial 2. initializes serial 3. add_serial_toserial_table (with internal mutex lock if needed) Similar approach should be used in other places to minimize the code executed under the mutex. John __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
