The Bottom of Bottom-Half Processing

In this chapter, we covered the three mechanisms used to defer work in the Linux kernel: softirqs, tasklets, and work queues. We went over their design and implementation. We discussed how to use them in your own code and we insulted their poorly conceived names. For historical completeness, we also looked at the bottom-half mechanisms that existed in previous versions of the Linux kernel: BH's and task queues.

We talked a lot in this chapter about synchronization and concurrency because such topics apply quite a bit to bottom halves. We even wrapped up the chapter with a discussion on disabling bottom halves for reasons of concurrency protection. It is now time to dive head first into these topics. The next chapter discusses kernel synchronization and concurrency in the abstract, providing a foundation for understanding the very issues at the heart of the problem. The subsequent chapter discusses the specific interfaces provided by our beloved kernel to solve these problems. Armed with the next two chapters, the world is your oyster.