On 2019-01-07 18:08:26 [-0400], Marc Dionne wrote: > On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 11:20 AM Linux Kernel Mailing List > <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org> wrote: > > > > Commit: 12209993e98c5fa1855c467f22a24e3d5b8be205 > > x86/fpu: Don't export __kernel_fpu_{begin,end}() > > … > > With EFI gone as the last user of __kernel_fpu_{begin|end}(), both can > > be made static and not exported anymore. > > > This commit removes an exported function pair that is currently used > by out of tree modules, while the replacement pair > (kernel_fpu_begin/end) is EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL. So this is making > existing functionality GPL only, which will probably be an issue for > several out of tree modules that use the fpu. > > Could kernel_fpu_begin/end be made plain EXPORT_SYMBOL?
It can be used by OOT modules as long as they are not under a proprietary license. The change here is not for me to decide, I added the x86 maintainers to make their decision. I can make a patch if they say so. On the other hand could we just drop EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL? I doubt this helps in any way yet please correct me if I am wrong. The kernel is GPL and everything links to it should be GPL compatible. People that don't specify a GPL compatible license either use wrapper around their binary blob or use EXPORT_SYMBOL functions. The latter group complains each time a function is not available anymore and we end up changing it to EXPORT_SYMBOL. So what do we gain from that EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL? > Marc Sebastian