in_atomic(): document why it is unsuitable for general use

Discourage people from inappropriately using in_atomic()

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/hardirq.h b/include/linux/hardirq.h
index 49829988bfa0..897f723bd222 100644
--- a/include/linux/hardirq.h
+++ b/include/linux/hardirq.h
@@ -72,6 +72,13 @@
 #define in_softirq()            (softirq_count())
 #define in_interrupt()          (irq_count())
 
+/*
+ * 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) != 0)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT