Subject: Re: Patch: [NET]: Remove CONFIG_PROC_FS depency for pcounter inuse

From: Oliver Hartkopp <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:48:52 +0100

Eric Dumazet wrote:
> Oliver Hartkopp a écrit :
>> It's not about the counter implementation but the integration/usage 
>> in the networking subsystem.
>>
>> Or does your mentioned patch mean, that the added functions in 
>> proto_[un|]register() will also be reverted?
>>
>
> A patch will make inet use percpu_counter instead of pcounter.
>
> Then a zap patch will delete lib/pcounter.c & include/linux/pcounter.h
>
> I dont understand why you say CONFIG_PROC_FS is *forced*.
> I can build a kernel with CONFIG_PROC_FS=n, with working INET.
Right. With enabled CONFIG_EMBEDDED you might have CONFIG_INET with 
CONFIG_PROC_FS=n.

But this is not the thing, i wanted to point out.

My major concern was, that "whatever-per-cpu-counters" are 
allocated/initialized in "proto_register()" for *every* network protocol 
but *only* IPv[4|6] is using these counters (when CONFIG_PROC_FS is set).

I just wanted to point out the situation for network protocols that do 
not need any inuse counters. In the current implementation the pcounters 
are allocated for every networking protocol in proto_register() which 
does not look optimized to me.

Will this change with your patch that uses percpu_counter instead of 
pcounter??

Regards,
Oliver