Hi, Kirill noticed that the following piece of code from md_alloc(dev, name) is dead: if (name && dev) /* * Creating /dev/mdNNN via "newarray", so adjust hold_active. */ mddev->hold_active = UNTIL_STOP; md_alloc() is always called with either dev == 0 or name == NULL. Judging from the commit that added this code: 039b7225e6e98783a7a7e79c52b29c437f29967d Author: NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed Apr 12 16:26:13 2017 +1000 md: allow creation of mdNNN arrays via md_mod/parameters/new_array and from the comment, it seems should be "if (!name && dev)". But that would also change ->hold_active for created-by-open md devices, and I'm not sure whether that would be a desirable change or not.