• Alan Stern's avatar
    [PATCH] USB: URB_ASYNC_UNLINK flag removed from the kernel · b375a049
    Alan Stern authored
    29 July 2005, Cambridge, MA:
    
    This afternoon Alan Stern submitted a patch to remove the URB_ASYNC_UNLINK
    flag from the Linux kernel.  Mr. Stern explained, "This flag is a relic
    from an earlier, less-well-designed system.  For over a year it hasn't
    been used for anything other than printing warning messages."
    
    An anonymous spokesman for the Linux kernel development community
    commented, "This is exactly the sort of thing we see happening all the
    time.  As the kernel evolves, support for old techniques and old code can
    be jettisoned and replaced by newer, better approaches.  Proprietary
    operating systems do not have the freedom or flexibility to change so
    quickly."
    
    Mr. Stern, a staff member at Harvard University's Rowland Institute who
    works on Linux only as a hobby, noted that the patch (labelled as548) did
    not update two files, keyspan.c and option.c, in the USB drivers' "serial"
    subdirectory.  "Those files need more extensive changes," he remarked.
    "They examine the status field of several URBs at times when they're not
    supposed to.  That will need to be fixed before the URB_ASYNC_UNLINK flag
    is removed."
    
    Greg Kroah-Hartman, the kernel maintainer responsible for overseeing all
    of Linux's USB drivers, did not respond to our inquiries or return our
    calls.  His only comment was "Applied, thanks."
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAlan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
    b375a049
usbnet.c 113 KB