Re: What is struct pci_driver.owner for?

[Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>]

Roland Dreier wrote:
> I just noticed that at some point, struct pci_driver grew a .owner
> member.  However, only a handful of drivers set it:
>
>     $ grep -r -A10 pci_driver drivers/ | grep owner
>     drivers/block/sx8.c-    .owner          = THIS_MODULE,
>     drivers/ieee1394/pcilynx.c-     .owner =           THIS_MODULE,
>     drivers/net/spider_net.c-       .owner          = THIS_MODULE,
>     drivers/video/imsttfb.c-        .owner          = THIS_MODULE,
>     drivers/video/kyro/fbdev.c-     .owner          = THIS_MODULE,
>     drivers/video/tridentfb.c-      .owner  = THIS_MODULE,
>
> Should all drivers be setting .owner = THIS_MODULE?  Is this a good
> kernel janitors task?

In theory its for module refcounting.  With so many PCI drivers and so 
few pci_driver::owner users, it makes me wonder how needed it is.

If it is needed (I've done no analysis, even though I am sx8.c author), 
then it should be applied uniformly.

	Jeff


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