Looks cleaner. The larger issues that bother me: 1) The fact that the abstract daya type "index key" provides access to a byte string "index key" is a bit confusing. I'd describe it as follows: (Based on my current understanding.) Each object has an associated "index key" that is used for lookup. The index key is a string of bits which is stored "inside" the object, however all access to it is done through method functions, so it is not necessary to explicitly store it anywhere. For example, it is possible to have the leading portion of the index_key be a hash of the remainder. Index keys may be variable-length, but must be self-delimiting. Specifically, two different index keys must differ at some bit position before the end of the shorter of the two. Some index key methods take an isolated "const void *index_key" argument, while others take an object pointer. 2) The code does not look 32-bit safe. In particular, keyring_get_key_chunk assumes the hash is BITS_PER_LONG long, but keyring_diff_objects assumes it's 8*8 bits... 3) I presume you looked at wider tries like Judy arrays and found that a fan-out of 16 was better? 4) There are 3/7 unused bytes in an assoc_array_node, after parent_slot. Would it be worth storing 16/48 bits of index key and 3/4 bits of number of levels to skip per assoc_array_node? Since parent_slot is actually only 4 bits, you could store 4 bits of nubmer of levels and 56 bits (up to 14 levels, plus the one from the famout) of index key. With 32-way fanout, you could fit 5 bits of parent index, 25/55 bits of index key, and encode the number of levels to skip (0-5/11) more carefully. 5) The big question: Why not use a hash table? That's what people usually expect when you say "associative array". It would be simpler and faster. RCU-safe resizeable hash tables are tricky, but a solved problem, There are universal hashing techniques for preventing hash collision attacks. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nfs" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html