[PATCH] give explicit guidance on the use of 64 bit fields

Just saying 64 bit fields may not be atomic is true, but less helpful than it might be.  Add explicit guidance about what the consequences of non-atomicity are  Signed-off-by: James Bottomley <>  --- diff --git a/newdevice.tex b/newdevice.tex index c7e6221..12123b9 100644 --- a/newdevice.tex +++ b/newdevice.tex @@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ large).
Remember that configuration fields over 32 bits wide might not be  atomically writable by the driver. +Therefore, no writeable field which triggers an action should be wider than 32 +bits.
section{What Device Number?}label{sec:Creating New Device Types / What Device Number?}