Re: kobject.c changes in -mm

[Frederik Deweerdt <deweerdt@free.fr>]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 11:09:42AM -0800, Greg KH wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 01:37:47PM +0000, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > --- linux-2.6.20-rc3/lib/kobject.c      2007-01-01 23:04:49.000000000 -0800
> > +++ devel/lib/kobject.c 2007-01-04 21:13:21.000000000 -0800
> > @@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
> >  #include <linux/module.h>
> >  #include <linux/stat.h>
> >  #include <linux/slab.h>
> > +#include <linux/kallsyms.h>
> > +#include <asm-generic/sections.h>
> > 
> > +#ifdef CONFIG_X86_32
> > +static int ptr_in_range(void *ptr, void *start, void *end)
> > +{
> > +       /*
> > +        * This should hopefully get rid of causing warnings
> > +        * if the architecture did not set one of the section
> > +        * variables up.
> > +        */ 
> > +       if (start >= end)
> > +               return 0;
> > +
> > +       if ((ptr >= start) && (ptr < end))
> > +               return 1;
> > +       return 0;
> > +}      
> > 
> > 
> > Can anyone explain WTF is going on here?  Including asm-generic headers
> > in core code definitly is not okay.  As are random CONFIG_X86_32 ifdefs
> > in said code.
> 
> It's a hack for debugging.  See the full patch at:
> 	http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/gregkh/gregkh-2.6/patches/driver/warn-when-statically-allocated-kobjects-are-used.patch
> 
> It is never going to go to mainline, due to the arch-specific hacks as
> you have noted.  But is good to have for debugging and getting error
> reports from users of -mm.
> 
Could a CONFIG_{MM,HACK}  option be added for this kind of hacks? It could
help clarify what the aim of the code is.

Regards,
Frederik