Re: RFC: [2.6 patch] small IPMI cleanup

[Corey Minyard <cminyard@mvista.com>]

Adrian Bunk wrote:

>>these functions that are perhaps not in the kernel yet (and perhaps 
>>never make it into the mainstream kernel).  Some of the statics do need 
>>to be cleaned up, though.
>>    
>>
>
>Why shouldn't they make it into the mainstream kernel?
>  
>
Sometimes people create specific tools that only support a specific type 
of board.  I'm not sure every single thing written to go into the kernel 
should be included i nthe mainstream kernel.  It's a hard call, but if 
it for some very specific thing then the vendor may not be interested in 
doing this.

>  
>
>>The IPMI driver was designed so that in-kernel users can use it as 
>>easily as userland users.  So these are important parts of the interface.
>>    
>>
>
>For userland users, a global kernel function (even if EXPORT_SYMBOL'ed) 
>is useless.
>  
>
Right, but it has to be there for the in-kernel users.

-Corey