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Date:      Mon, 31 Dec 2001 14:41:26 +0100 (CET)
From:      Michal Mertl <mime@traveller.cz>
To:        Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc:        Alfred Perlstein <bright@mu.org>, Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>, <arch@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: 64 bit counters
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.41.0112311436520.16032-100000@prg.traveller.cz>
In-Reply-To: <20011231234620.O6481-100000@gamplex.bde.org>

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On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, Bruce Evans wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Dec 2001, Alfred Perlstein wrote:
>
> > * Michal Mertl <mime@traveller.cz> [011229 18:49] wrote:
> > > I doesn't seem too bad to me, but I do have a problem - I can't implement
> > > real atomic 64 bit operations on an i386. It shouldn't be named atomic_XXX
> > > if it isn't atomic. So that other people don't start to use it on <586
> > > with some variable which changes fast.
> > >
> > > What about making the counters not 64 bit, but the size of biggest atomic
> > > type? Something like type u_maxatomic_t which would be 32 bit on <586 and
> > > 64 bit otherwise. There would still be problem in determining at compile
> > > time the size but we could choose the safe size if not somewhere defined
> > > otherwise.
> > >
> > > I can make changes to my local tree but how should I send them someone for
> > > review? Should I send them to arch? I tried to find the answer to this
> > > question in developers's handbook but didn't find it.
> >
> > *laff* the concept of atomic_t was initially proposed by me over
> > a year ago (i got the idea from linux) however it never seemed to
> > get done.
>
> atomic_t would be "int" if anything.  I removed support for atomic
> operations on all types except "int" (and some pointers punned to int
> on i386's), and found that (on i386's) only 2 source files didn't
> compile.  Both are easy to fix (one MD place used a char type for a
> set of flags that is followed by padding to a 32-bit boundary anyway,
> and one MI place uses long types which are equivalent to ints on i386's
> anyway).
>

I've almost finished the changes to implement interface counters with
atomic_t which is either 32 bit or 64 bit. I'll finish it anyway. It can
at least be converted to atomic_add_int (instead of my WIP name
atomic_add_max and friends) and it will help someone later to be able to
get rid of giant protection. I may be wrong even with this - well if
that's going to be the case and otherwise there will be no use for my
changes, they can always be forgotten. I could take it as practice lesson
on hacking kernel sources :-).

> Bruce
>
>
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>

-- 
Michal Mertl
mime@traveller.cz




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