[Cbe-oss-dev] Should rndcntl_stop disappear?

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Saturday 17 March 2007 23:42:22 Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:
> This function is defined in spufs.h, struct spu_context_ops.  After  
> some inspection, I found that this has been in the code since the  
> beginning, and was latter removed in commit  
> b9e3bd774bb1a90fee9b90f461a51e4ba295fe6d, available in both  
> branches.  However, it was reintroduced in commit  
> f071f0230b4e5c062ed3899adacf2f00fc1a67e2, only found in the ps3-linux  
> branch.
>
> So I'm wondering... should rndcntl_stop be really available in struct  
> spu_context_ops?  Or should it die again in favour of rndcntl_write  
> (which is what all callers do)?  I'll happily provide a trivial patch  
> for this if it is desired.

We have a yet unresolved problem in the ps3 linux tree because the
master control, which is supposed to replace the run bit in the
runcntl register, is not accessible there.

In short, runcntl_stop should go away, but just removing the function
is not the real solution, we must actually make sure that the kernel
accessing the runcntl variable does not race against users accessing
it, in particular while a context is loaded into an spu but not currently
executing.

	Arnd <><