On 10/16/25 12:13 AM, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> The list of module taint flags has not been updated lately as the
> taint flags list grows. Instead of trying to keep multiple lists
> updated, just refer to the list of kernel taint flags since they are
> the same.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap <[email protected]>
> ---
> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
> Cc: Luis Chamberlain <[email protected]>
> Cc: Petr Pavlu <[email protected]>
> Cc: Daniel Gomez <[email protected]>
> Cc: Sami Tolvanen <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> ---
>  Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-module        |   10 ++--------
>  Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst |    2 ++
>  2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
> 
> --- linux-next-20251014.orig/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-module
> +++ linux-next-20251014/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-module
> @@ -52,14 +52,8 @@ What:              /sys/module/*/taint
>  Date:                Jan 2012
>  KernelVersion:       3.3
>  Contact:     Kay Sievers <[email protected]>
> -Description: Module taint flags:
> -                     ==  =====================
> -                     P   proprietary module
> -                     O   out-of-tree module
> -                     F   force-loaded module
> -                     C   staging driver module
> -                     E   unsigned module
> -                     ==  =====================
> +Description: Module taint flags: same as the kernel taint flags.
> +             See: :ref:`taint_flags` in 
> Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

The module taint flags that can appear in /sys/module/*/taint are
a subset of the kernel taint flags. By looking at the calls to
add_taint_module(), they are as follows:

Present:
TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE
TAINT_OOT_MODULE
TAINT_FORCED_MODULE
TAINT_CRAP
TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE

Missing:
TAINT_LIVEPATCH
TAINT_TEST

+ potentially TEST_AUX.

Since this text specifically documents what can appear in
/sys/module/*/taint, I think we should still maintain a list of these
flags for accuracy.

Additionally, Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst provides
taint descriptions for the kernel as a whole, which can be misleading
for individual modules. For instance, for TAINT_LIVEPATCH, the document
says "kernel has been live patched", but in the context of
/sys/module/*/taint, it means "this is a livepatch module".

-- 
Thanks,
Petr

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