Re: Suggestion for module .init.{text,data} sections

[Brian Gerst <bgerst@didntduck.org>]

Ingo Oeser wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2001 at 09:49:05PM -0700, Adam J. Richter wrote:
> >       A while ago, on linux-kernel, we had a discussion about
> > adding support for __initdata and __init in modules.  Somebody
> > (whose name escapes me) had implemented it by essentially adding
> > a vmrealloc() facility in the kernel.  I think I've thought of a
> > simpler way, that would require almost no kernel changes.
> >
> [implementation details snipped]
> 
> While you are at this, you could make the .exit.{text,data}
> sections swappable for modules (by allocating swappable pages fro
> them?) and only mark them unswappable, while the module is
> exiting.
> 
> Rationale: A device needed for swaping will never call exit
> stuff, because it is still in use. So I see no obvious race here.
> 
> Regards

__exit functions and data are usually too small to make the effort worth
it.  __init functions and data on the other hand could be quite large,
if they contain firmware data for example.

--

				Brian Gerst