> That depends on the interrupt. If you're in a normal ethernet
> controller interrupt service routine (for example, dp8390_get), you
> have to allocate memory.

depends on how you define "normal" and "have to."  8-)

Some ethernet drivers (e.g. ep) try pretty hard to avoid allocating
memory at interrupt time, because when they take the interrupt they
have a relatively small amount of time to read the packet into a
buffer.

The "right" strategy really does depend on how your hardware works.
Certainly, though, for many ethernet drivers, allocating mbufs in the
interrupt handler is normal.


cgd