Hi...
What is a "Software Interrupt"? I was going thru the LDD 3 and
stumbled upon this. There is an
instance while explaining spin_lock_bh() function that the author
mentions that this only disables the "Software Interrupts"( LDD 3,page
number 119). In the immediately next paragraph, these "Software
Interrupts" are linked to "tasklets". I am not able to fully understand
this point. It would be really nice if some one elaborated on this.
If LDD said that, I think it is kinda misleading. The correct term IMHO
should be bottom half, or specificly soft irq. It's a deferred
procedure/function, specifically constructed to carry the rest of the
work of interrupt handler. It is said "deferred" because the work done
inside this soft irq is something that is not time critical, thus safe
to delay. For example, acknowledging interrupt should be done ASAP, but
copying data from NIC's buffer to kernel ring buffer is something that
can be done later.
Hope I explain the issue correctly.
regards,
Mulyadi
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