On 2005.12.20 01:05:03 +0000, matthew green wrote:
   | The following reply was made to PR kern/32342; it has been noted by GNATS.
   | 
   | From: matthew green <mrg@eterna.com.au>
   | To: Iain Hibbert <plunky@rya-online.net>
   | Cc: kern-bug-people@netbsd.org, gnats-admin@netbsd.org,
   | 	netbsd-bugs@netbsd.org, gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
   | Subject: re: kern/32342: OpenBSD firmware loading framework 
   | Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:02:14 +1100
   | 
   |     
   |     1. It seems to me that it would be better to read such a firmware file one
   |     time and free it after use than to waste a chunk of memory (even if paged
   |     out) for ever.
   |     u
   |  
   |  some drivers need to reload the firmware "semi-often".  ie, when
   |  my iwi(4) craps out, reloading the firmware fixes it usually.  so
   |  getting rid of it isn't always isn't a good idea.
   
   Yeah, but right now you do this manually with the iwi driver. Think
   about a firmware loading API that could be called by iwi when it craps
   out.


i don't see how this matters.  my point is that because it is
done multiple times (and, can be done by the kernel in -current,
not just 'ifconfig iwi0 up') having the firmware be re-loaded
from the filesystem each time may not be desireable.  since it
seems we are saying that buffer management is going to be the
callers responsibility, this shouldn't be an issue.
   

.mrg.