net: Fix inconsistent teardown and release of private netdev state.
Network devices can allocate reasources and private memory using netdev_ops->ndo_init(). However, the release of these resources can occur in one of two different places. Either netdev_ops->ndo_uninit() or netdev->destructor(). The decision of which operation frees the resources depends upon whether it is necessary for all netdev refs to be released before it is safe to perform the freeing. netdev_ops->ndo_uninit() presumably can occur right after the NETDEV_UNREGISTER notifier completes and the unicast and multicast address lists are flushed. netdev->destructor(), on the other hand, does not run until the netdev references all go away. Further complicating the situation is that netdev->destructor() almost universally does also a free_netdev(). This creates a problem for the logic in register_netdevice(). Because all callers of register_netdevice() manage the freeing of the netdev, and invoke free_netdev(dev) if register_netdevice(...
parent
7005cade
Please register or sign in to comment