Re: [2.6 patch] deprecate EXPORT_SYMBOL(do_settimeofday)

[Russell King <rmk+lkml@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Sat, Feb 26, 2005 at 06:13:25PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> You call it "breakage" because you have a relatively dogmatic view 
> regarding the selection of user visible symbols.
> Other people care more about the usability of the kernel config system, 
> and therefore a select of one of the I2C* options is quite common from 
> both outside and inside the i2c subsystem.
> 
> There are two possbile situations:
> - these RTC drivers are nice add-ons that could be shown if all
>   required I2C* options are already enabled
> - these RTC drivers are pretty essential and should really be enabled
>   on the platforms they are for
> 
> Which of these two cases describes the situation of these RTC drivers?

Since RTCs aren't _actually_ essential for Linux kernel operation,
the former clearly applies.

Other people may have differing opinions, but having worked with a
large number of SoC platforms where the RTC is reset when the SoC
is reset, or even platforms where there is no RTC at all, it brings
a different perspective to this that people who have only ever
experienced systems where the RTC is always true do not have.

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of:  2.6 PCMCIA      - http://pcmcia.arm.linux.org.uk/
                 2.6 Serial core