From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751073AbWEAJY3 (ORCPT ); Mon, 1 May 2006 05:24:29 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751081AbWEAJY3 (ORCPT ); Mon, 1 May 2006 05:24:29 -0400 Received: from emailhub.stusta.mhn.de ([141.84.69.5]:26898 "HELO mailout.stusta.mhn.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1751073AbWEAJY2 (ORCPT ); Mon, 1 May 2006 05:24:28 -0400 Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 11:24:28 +0200 From: Adrian Bunk To: Andrew Morton Cc: arjan@infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [RFC: 2.6 patch] kernel/sys.c: possible cleanups Message-ID: <20060501092428.GW3570@stusta.de> References: <20060501071134.GH3570@stusta.de> <20060501001803.48ac34df.akpm@osdl.org> <20060501073514.GQ3570@stusta.de> <1146469146.20760.31.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <20060501004925.36e4dd21.akpm@osdl.org> <20060501085939.GV3570@stusta.de> <20060501020722.62bc5050.akpm@osdl.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060501020722.62bc5050.akpm@osdl.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060403 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, May 01, 2006 at 02:07:22AM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote: > Adrian Bunk wrote: > > > > So the work would expand to: > > - writing 200 feature-removal-schedule.txt entries > > - marking 200 functions and variables as __deprecated_for_modules > > > > And in a few months: > > - removing 200 feature-removal-schedule.txt entries > > - removing 200 __deprecated_for_modules markers > > - removing the 200 unused exports > > Don't bother with all that stuff - a modprobe-time warning across a few > kernel releases is sufficient to make any developers who are dependent upon > an export aware of their problem. > > Changing the export to EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL() and then later removing the > export is adequate. OK, let's get this into 2.6.17 - it can't break anything and makes developers sooner aware of this. Can we also create the rule that changing an EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL() back to an EXPORT_SYMBOL() requires an in-kernel user of the export? Otherwise all this "there is no stable API for external modules" saying starts to become nonsense. If we give developers 6 months of EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL() warning this should be enough for them to submit their code for review and inclusion into the kernel. cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed