Re: network driver usage count

From: Stephen Hemminger
Date: Wed Nov 21 2007 - 16:06:00 EST


On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:45:11 +0100
Ferenc Wagner <wferi@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Under 2.6.23.1, my lsmod output shows this:
>
> $ lsmod | grep tg3
> tg3 100580 0
>
> The usage count is zero, even though it drives my two physical
> interfaces:
>
> $ ls -l /sys/class/net/eth-gb?/device/driver
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2007-11-21 19:58 /sys/class/net/eth-gb1/device/driver -> ../../../bus/pci/drivers/tg3
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2007-11-21 19:58 /sys/class/net/eth-gb2/device/driver -> ../../../bus/pci/drivers/tg3
>
> These interfaces are up and bonded together, but that doesn't seem to
> matter at all. I also checked other machines, the network driver
> (tg3, e1000) usage counts are always zero under various recent 2.6
> kernels, but nonzero under 2.4.21 for example.
>
> And really, the module could be removed, cutting my ssh session. :)
>
> Was this made possible intentionally? If yes, why?

Yes, so devices can be removed at anytime.

--
Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/