Re: CVS commit: src/sys/arch/x86/x86

[Iain Hibbert <plunky%rya-online.net@localhost>]

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011, Jukka Ruohonen wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 06:39:49AM -0400, Jared McNeill wrote:
> > I would argue that any manually loaded module shouldn't be autounloaded.
> > What do you think about flagging modules as autoloaded and only
> > autounloading the autoloaded ones?
>
> That sounds right to me.
>
> As noted, generally I am not sure what my opinion about autounloading really
> is. But it feels somewhat awkward and error-prone that drivers must "protect"
> themselves against the autounloading kthread.

How often is autounloading actually effectively used anyway?  I mean, if
the module is loaded automatically, it is because the system found that it
was needed.

So, yes.. there situation where eg USB or PCMCIA devices might have a
transient need for a driver, but on the other hand, the overhead of a
driver being in memory is not that great considering that you used it
once, as the chance of re-use is significant (higher by far than all the
other drivers that have never been needed)

The real benefit of the modular system is that you don't need to load
hundreds of modules on the off chance that they will be used. A cron entry
could be used to flush unused modules if the sysop cares about that, why
do we need a kthread running?

iain