From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Keith Owens Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:47:03 +0000 Subject: Re: [Linux-ia64] null pointer dereference patch Message-Id: List-Id: References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 20 Feb 2002 14:26:35 -0800, David Mosberger wrote: >>>>>> On Wed, 20 Feb 2002 11:22:29 +1100, Keith Owens said: > Keith> Some arch dependent init code relies on extable working right > Keith> from the start, to catch kernel operations that may or may > Keith> not be valid, depending on the precise hardware. Changing > Keith> module_list to NULL breaks that code, the patch is correct. > >If you insist on the kernel module descriptor being initialized right >from the get go, then I'd argue there should be a way for statically >initializing this descriptor. I really think it's a bad idea to have >partially initialized data laying around. The bulk of the kernel module descriptor is statically initialized, all the common fields are filled in that way, including the extable that init code relies on. However archdata is a bit harder (arch dependent initialization) and the kernel_data field cannot be statically initialized at all. Just have to check if those fields have been filled in or not. In any case it is possible (but unlikely) for a module to be loaded that has no archdata so the field can be NULL for modules as well.