Re: [PATCH V2 1/2] PCI/DOE: Remove the pci_doe_flush_mb() call

[Lukas Wunner]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 07:53:23AM -0800, ira.weiny@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Each struct doe_mb is managed as part of the PCI device.  They can't go
> away as long as the PCI device exists.  pci_doe_flush_mb() was set up to
> flush the workqueue and prevent any further submissions to the mailboxes
> when the PCI device goes away.  Unfortunately, this was fundamentally
> flawed.  There was no guarantee that a struct doe_mb remained after
> pci_doe_flush_mb() returned.  Therefore, the doe_mb state could be
> invalid when those threads waiting on the workqueue were flushed.
> 
> Fortunately the current code is safe because all callers make a
> synchronous call to pci_doe_submit_task() and maintain a reference on the
> PCI device.
> 
> For these reasons, pci_doe_flush_mb() will never be called while tasks
> are being processed and there is no use for it.

Going forward my plan is to allocate all existing DOE mailboxes
of a device upon enumeration.  That will allow concurrent use
of a mailbox by multiple drivers.

When a pci_dev goes away, say, because it's been hot-removed,
we need a way to abort all ongoing DOE exchanges.

pci_doe_flush_mb() seems to do just that so I'm not sure why
it's being removed?

Thanks,

Lukas