Re: [PATCH v3 01/22] timer: Allow to check when the timer callback has not finished yet

[Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>]

On Wed, 18 Nov 2015, Petr Mladek wrote:
> timer_pending() checks whether the list of callbacks is empty.
> Each callback is removed from the list before it is called,
> see call_timer_fn() in __run_timers().
> 
> Sometimes we need to make sure that the callback has finished.
> For example, if we want to free some resources that are accessed
> by the callback.
> 
> For this purpose, this patch adds timer_active(). It checks both
> the list of callbacks and the running_timer. It takes the base_lock
> to see a consistent state.
> 
> I plan to use it to implement delayed works in kthread worker.
> But I guess that it will have wider use. In fact, I wonder if
> timer_pending() is misused in some situations.

Well. That's nice and good. But how will that new function solve
anything? After you drop the lock the state is not longer valid.
 
Thanks,

	tglx