Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of linux-kernel+bounces-37476-linux.lists.archive=gmail.com@vger.kernel.org designates 2604:1380:45e3:2400::1 as permitted sender) client-ip=2604:1380:45e3:2400::1;
From: Elizabeth Figura <zfigura@codeweavers.com>
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
 linux-api@vger.kernel.org, wine-devel@winehq.org,
 =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Andr=E9?= Almeida <andrealmeid@igalia.com>,
 Wolfram Sang <wsa@kernel.org>, Arkadiusz Hiler <ahiler@codeweavers.com>,
 Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Subject:
 Re: [RFC PATCH 2/9] ntsync: Reserve a minor device number and ioctl range.
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:59:13 -0600
Message-ID: <4892238.31r3eYUQgx@camazotz>
In-Reply-To: <2024012454-cosmos-sprint-7db7@gregkh>
References:
 <20240124004028.16826-1-zfigura@codeweavers.com>
 <1875326.tdWV9SEqCh@terabithia> <2024012454-cosmos-sprint-7db7@gregkh>
Precedence: bulk
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

On Wednesday, 24 January 2024 06:32:13 CST Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 09:43:09PM -0600, Elizabeth Figura wrote:
> > > Why do you need a fixed minor number?  Can't your userspace handle
> > > dynamic numbers?  What systems require a static value?
> > 
> > I believe I added this because it's necessary for MODULE_ALIAS (and, more 
> > broadly, because I was following the example of vaguely comparable devices 
> > like /dev/loop-control). I suppose I could instead just remove MODULE_ALIAS 
> > (or even remove the ability to compile ntsync as a module entirely).
> 
> Do you really need MODULE_ALIAS()?  Having it for char devices to be
> auto-loaded is not generally considered a good idea anymore as systems
> should have the module loaded before userspace goes and asks for it.
> 
> It also reduces suprises when any random userspace program can cause
> kernel modules to be loaded for no real reason.

I think there's no reason we can't make loading the system's problem. I'll remove it in v2.