[PATCH] Add initial implementation of klist helpers.
This klist interface provides a couple of structures that wrap around struct list_head to provide explicit list "head" (struct klist) and list "node" (struct klist_node) objects. For struct klist, a spinlock is included that protects access to the actual list itself. struct klist_node provides a pointer to the klist that owns it and a kref reference count that indicates the number of current users of that node in the list. The entire point is to provide an interface for iterating over a list that is safe and allows for modification of the list during the iteration (e.g. insertion and removal), including modification of the current node on the list. It works using a 3rd object type - struct klist_iter - that is declared and initialized before an iteration. klist_next() is used to acquire the next element in the list. It returns NULL if there are no more items. This klist interface provides a couple of structures that wrap around struct list_head to provide explicit list "head" (struct klist) and list "node" (struct klist_node) objects. For struct klist, a spinlock is included that protects access to the actual list itself. struct klist_node provides a pointer to the klist that owns it and a kref reference count that indicates the number of current users of that node in the list. The entire point is to provide an interface for iterating over a list that is safe and allows for modification of the list during the iteration (e.g. insertion and removal), including modification of the current node on the list. It works using a 3rd object type - struct klist_iter - that is declared and initialized before an iteration. klist_next() is used to acquire the next element in the list. It returns NULL if there are no more items. Internally, that routine takes the klist's lock, decrements the reference count of the previous klist_node and increments the count of the next klist_node. It then drops the lock and returns. There are primitives for adding and removing nodes to/from a klist. When deleting, klist_del() will simply decrement the reference count. Only when the count goes to 0 is the node removed from the list. klist_remove() will try to delete the node from the list and block until it is actually removed. This is useful for objects (like devices) that have been removed from the system and must be freed (but must wait until all accessors have finished). Internally, that routine takes the klist's lock, decrements the reference count of the previous klist_node and increments the count of the next klist_node. It then drops the lock and returns. There are primitives for adding and removing nodes to/from a klist. When deleting, klist_del() will simply decrement the reference count. Only when the count goes to 0 is the node removed from the list. klist_remove() will try to delete the node from the list and block until it is actually removed. This is useful for objects (like devices) that have been removed from the system and must be freed (but must wait until all accessors have finished). Signed-off-by: Patrick Mochel <mochel@digitalimplant.org> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de> diff -Nru a/include/linux/klist.h b/include/linux/klist.h
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include/linux/klist.h
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lib/klist.c
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