Re: [PATCH RFC] [1/9] Core module symbol namespaces code and intro.

Adrian Bunk
2007-11-27T21:10:10Z

On Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 02:00:37PM -0500, Dave Jones wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 10:25:33AM -0800, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>
> > 1) Why is everyone so concerned that export symbol space is large?
> > - does it cost cpu or running memory?
> > - does it cause bugs?
> > - or are you just worried about "evil modules"?
>
> To clarify something here, by "evil", don't necessarily think "binary only".
>
> Out of tree modules are frequently using symbols that they shouldn't be.
> Because they get no peer-review here, they 'get away with it' for the most part.
> Until distro vendors push rebased kernel updates that removed exports that
> should never have been exported, and suddenly people like me get bombed
> with "Fedora broke my xyz driver" mails.
>...

The real problem is that these drivers are not in the upstream kernel.

Are there common reasons why these drivers are not upstream?

> Dave

cu
Adrian

--

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"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
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