Re: [PATCH] Introduce down_try() so we can move away fromdown_trylock()

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Fri Aug 01 2008 - 13:27:22 EST




On Tue, 29 Jul 2008, Rusty Russell wrote:
>
> Introduce down_try()

I hate that name. Everybody else uses "xxx_trylock()", now you introduce a
short version of that that just has the same return value as everybody
else except for semaphores that admittedly were odd.

Also, all actual _users_ of down_trylock() seem to be prime candidates for
turning into mutexes anyway - with the _possible_ exception of the console
semaphore which has problems with the mutex debugging code.

> I planned on removing the much-disliked down_trylock() (with its
> backwards return codes) in 2.6.27, but it's creating something of a
> logjam with other patches in -mm and linux-next.
>
> Andrew suggested introducing "down_try" as a wrapper now, to make
> the transition easier.

The transition to WHAT? To crap?

There is no need to introduce yet another temporary thing just to make
things even _more_ confusing.

Yeah, I'm grumpy. I'm always pretty grumpy, but I'm trying to go through
some backlog where I had been going "hmm, why would I do this", and this
one wasn't the only one where my reaction was "if I pull/apply this, the
end result is worse".

Guys, some quality control and critical thinking, please.

Linus
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