Re: [PATCH] Correct printk %pF to work on all architectures

Linus Torvalds
2008-09-03T22:54:51Z

On Wed, 3 Sep 2008, James Bottomley wrote:
>
> Is that finally final? because the last time I tried to do the above
> for a voyager override I was told weak functions were the preferred
> method ...

Weak functions are fine IF THEY DO SOMETHING REAL AND SHOULD BE FUNCTIONS
IN THE FIRST PLACE!

IOW, if the default behaviour is actually something that should be a
function, then a weak function is the simplest and most appropriate way of
doing thigns.

But if the default behaviour is to not do anything at all, then a weak
function simply doesn't work - because it will always generate that stupid
and useless function call. And then you have to have per-architecture
inline functions.

And in order to avoid having all 99 architectures that don't care at all
add an empty inline function, then you essentially have to use a #define
to allow us to detect at compile-time that no function existed.

> Anyway, it's easy to do (if a slightly larger diff) ... I have to move
> the prototype from include/kernel.h to include/module.h because I need
> an assured asm/xxx include before it to get the override.

I don't really see what this has to do with module.h, though.

Why do this in <linux/module.h>? Why not just do it in lib/vsptintf.c
which is the only place that cares? None of this needs to pollute the
generic header files that simply don't care.

Linus