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Unserializing ioctl() system calls

From:  "Spinka, Kristofer" <kspinka-AT-style.net>
To:  linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org
Subject:  Unserializing ioctl() system calls
Date:  Fri, 21 May 2004 22:46:45 -0400

I noticed that even in the 2.6.6 code, callers to ioctl system call
(sys_ioctl in fs/ioctl.c) are serialized with {lock,unlock}_kernel().

I realize that many kernel modules, and POSIX for that matter, may not be
ready to make this more concurrent.

I propose adding a flag to indicate that the underlying module would like
to support its own concurrency management, and thus we avoid grabbing the
BKL around the f_op->ioctl call.

The default behavior would adhere to existing standards, and if the flag is
present (in the underlying module), we let the module (or modules) handle
it.

Reasonable?

   /kristofer
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