How to understand in_dev_put()and in_dev_get()?

[zhoufanking]

Hi,everybody！
I'm wondering how to understand the in_dev_get() and in_dev_put() functions in "linux/inetdevice.h". What do them mean? Should them be used together? Could anybody explain them for me? thanks a lot!!

[zhoufanking]

in_dev_get() return a pointer to a in_device struct relating to a net_device, and add an reference to this net_device. When our work done using this struct we should release this in_device struct by in_dev_put().