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Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 16:34:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>
cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mii module broken under new scheme
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On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> However, for inclusion in the kernel, it is not needed.  Quite simply, 
> mii.c is essentially a library, and it needs absolutely no 
> initialization nor cleanup at all.  Thus, it is a bug in the module 
> loader that any code changes at all are required.

  I'm afraid it's not.

> There exists a no_module_init tag, which is in theory the proper fix for 
> this problem under rusty's system, but that is itself a bug:  it's 
> redundant just like the silly EXPORT_NO_SYMBOLS tag -- it's stating the 
> obvious.  The module loader needs to notice a lack of init_module and 
> exit_module and handle it accordingly.

  It does.

  I reread the discussion on this, and I still don't see what great
benefit the new loader brings, or why it was allowed to break all the
existing modules.

  A software interface is a contract between caller and service. As long
as it doesn't change you can rewrite either side of it without breaking
the other. That reduces maintenance and is something I thought was
standard software engineering, best practices, etc.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

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