perusing some timer-related kernel stuff and i ran across this in include/linux/hardirq.h: /* * Are we running in atomic context? WARNING: this macro cannot * always detect atomic context; in particular, it cannot know about * held spinlocks in non-preemptible kernels. Thus it should not be * used in the general case to determine whether sleeping is possible. * Do not use in_atomic() in driver code. */ #define in_atomic() ((preempt_count() & ~PREEMPT_ACTIVE) != PREEMPT_INATOMIC_BASE) but a quick check shows a sprinkling of in_atomic() checks in the drivers/ directory. is that admonition overly strict? or what? rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday ========================================================================