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

Dave Jones
2007-11-27T21:26:37Z

On Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 10:09:42PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> 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.

You're preaching to the choir.

> Are there common reasons why these drivers are not upstream?

It varies case by case.

Dave

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