Re: [PATCH] RFC: ksmbd: provide MODULE_VERSION()

[Paulo Alcantara <pc@manguebit.com>]

Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> writes:

> On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 03:49:47PM -0300, Paulo Alcantara wrote:
>> Steve French <smfrench@gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>> > It is interesting that almost 700 kernel modules define
>> > MODULE_VERSION() for their module, but only 4 filesystems (including
>> > cifs.ko).  I find it useful mainly for seeing which fixes are in
>> > (since some distros do 'full backports' so easier to look at the
>> > module version sometimes to see what fixes are likely in the module
>> > when someone reports a problem).   I am curious why few fs use it
>> > though since it is apparently very widely used for other module types.
>> 
>> I find cifs.ko version quite useless, especially for distro and stable
>> kernels which take fixes from newer versions while not backporting the
>> commit that bumps cifs.ko version.  So relying on that version becomes
>> pointless, IMO.
>
> Yes, it is pointless, which is why it really should just be removed.
> I'll do a sweep of the tree after -rc1 is out and start sending out
> patches...

Sounds good.  Kernel version and git tree are just enough to figure out
what a filesystem or driver has in terms of features or fixes.