__scsi_device_lookup and __scsi_device_lookup_by_target do not check for the sdev_state and hence return scsi_devices with sdev_state set to SDEV_DEL also. It has the following side effects. We can have two scsi_devices with the same HBTL queued in the scsi_host->__devices/scsi_target->devices list, one in the SDEV_DEL state and the other in, say SDEV_RUNNING state. If the one in the SDEV_DEL state is before the one in SDEV_RUNNING state, (which will almost always be the case) the scsi_device_lookup and scsi_device_lookup_by_target will never find the totally legitimate scsi_device (the one in the SDEV_RUNNING state). This is because __scsi_device_lookup/__scsi_device_lookup_by_target always returns the first one in the list (which in our case is the one with the SDEV_DEL state) and the scsi_device_get() which is called by scsi_device_lookup/scsi_device_lookup_by_target will return -ENXIO for this scsi_device, resulting in scsi_device_lookup and scsi_device_lookup_by_target to return NULL. So we _cannot_ lookup a perfectly valid device present in the list of scsi_devices. The right thing to do is to not have __scsi_device_lookup and __scsi_device_lookup_by_target match a device if the scsi_device state is SDEV_DEL. This will also make these functions similar in behaviour to their scsi_device_lookup/scsi_device_lookup_by_target counterparts, as the comments in the code suggest. One way by which we can have two scsi_devices in the list is as follows. Suppose a scsi_device has some outstanding command(s) when scsi_remove_device is called for it. Due to the extra ref being held by the command in flight, the __scsi_remove_device->put_device call will not actually free the scsi_device and it will remain in the scsi_device list albeit in the SDEV_DEL state. Now if we do a scsi_add_device for the same HBTL, a new device with the same HBTL (this one in SDEV_RUNNING state) gets added to the scsi_device list. Infact if we call scsi_add_device one more time, it happily goes ahead and tries to add it once more, as scsi_probe_and_add_lun->scsi_device_lookup_by_target does not return the already existing device. This will though result in the kobject EEXIST warning dump. The patch below solves the problem described here by not returning scsi_devices in SDEV_DEL state, thus allowing scsi_device in SDEV_RUNNING state (if any) to be correctly returned, instead. Thanx, Tomar Signed-off-by: Nagendra Singh Tomar <nagendra_tomar@xxxxxxxxxxx> --- --- linux-2.6.23.14/drivers/scsi/scsi.c.orig 2008-01-23 18:06:02.000000000 +0530 +++ linux-2.6.23.14/drivers/scsi/scsi.c 2008-01-23 19:17:35.000000000 +0530 @@ -951,7 +951,7 @@ struct scsi_device *__scsi_device_lookup struct scsi_device *sdev; list_for_each_entry(sdev, &starget->devices, same_target_siblings) { - if (sdev->lun ==lun) + if (sdev->lun == lun && sdev->sdev_state != SDEV_DEL) return sdev; } @@ -1008,7 +1008,7 @@ struct scsi_device *__scsi_device_lookup list_for_each_entry(sdev, &shost->__devices, siblings) { if (sdev->channel == channel && sdev->id == id && - sdev->lun ==lun) + sdev->lun == lun && sdev->sdev_state != SDEV_DEL) return sdev; } ___________________________________________________________ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html