Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261153AbVAGBBc (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 20:01:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261163AbVAGA6h (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:58:37 -0500 Received: from [213.146.154.40] ([213.146.154.40]:54961 "EHLO pentafluge.infradead.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261153AbVAGAtA (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:49:00 -0500 Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:48:50 +0000 From: Christoph Hellwig To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Alan Cox , Andrew Morton , Al Viro , paulmck@us.ibm.com, arjan@infradead.org, Linux Kernel Mailing List , jtk@us.ibm.com, wtaber@us.ibm.com, pbadari@us.ibm.com, markv@us.ibm.com, greghk@us.ibm.com Subject: Re: [PATCH] fs: Restore files_lock and set_fs_root exports Message-ID: <20050107004850.GA29346@infradead.org> Mail-Followup-To: Christoph Hellwig , Linus Torvalds , Alan Cox , Andrew Morton , Al Viro , paulmck@us.ibm.com, arjan@infradead.org, Linux Kernel Mailing List , jtk@us.ibm.com, wtaber@us.ibm.com, pbadari@us.ibm.com, markv@us.ibm.com, greghk@us.ibm.com References: <20050106190538.GB1618@us.ibm.com> <1105039259.4468.9.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <20050106201531.GJ1292@us.ibm.com> <20050106203258.GN26051@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <20050106210408.GM1292@us.ibm.com> <20050106212417.GQ26051@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <20050106152621.395f935e.akpm@osdl.org> <1105053007.17176.291.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-SRS-Rewrite: SMTP reverse-path rewritten from by pentafluge.infradead.org See http://www.infradead.org/rpr.html Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1283 Lines: 26 On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 04:24:58PM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote: > At that point there is a specific _reason_ to break it, aka "that function > simply doesn't exist any more". > > I'm known for happily breaking binary modules, but I think we should do it > only if we have a reason _other_ than "let's break a module". Note that the function that started this thread weren't removed with nwfs in mind - in fact I doubt anyone here has seen the module or it's requirements. Arjan and I have produced lists of unused exported symbols and went through the list what made sense and what not, and these exports were up high on the doesn't make sense and any use we could imagine would be harmfull list. The explained use only seconds that opinion - it has caused constant trouble for years where IBM has been pushing the big distros to relax VFS sanity checks and add additioal exports for their totally broken kernel driver. That no beeing enough I know of at least two propritary Unix variants where it cause exactly the same trouble. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/