On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:43:06 +0100 (CET) Andi Kleen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > There seems to be rough consensus that the kernel currently has too > many exported symbols. A lot of these exports are generally usable > utility functions or important driver interfaces; but another large > part are functions intended by only one or two very specific modules > for a very specific purpose. One example is the TCP code. It has most > of its internals exported, but only for use by tcp_ipv6.c (and now a > few more by the TCP/IP congestion modules) But it doesn't make sense > to include these exported for a specific module functions into a > broader "kernel interface". External modules assume they can use > these functions, but they were never intended for that. > > This patch allows to export symbols only for specific modules by > introducing symbol name spaces. A module name space has a white > list of modules that are allowed to import symbols for it; all others > can't use the symbols. > > It adds two new macros: > > MODULE_NAMESPACE_ALLOW(namespace, module); > > Allow module to import symbols from namespace. module is the module > name without .ko as displayed by lsmod. Must be in the same module > as the export (and be duplicated if there are multiple modules > exporting symbols to a namespace). Multiple allows for the same name > space are allowed. > > EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS(namespace, symbol); > Hi, I like this concept in general; I have one minor comment; right now your namespace argument is like EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS(foo, some_symbol); from a language-like pov I kinda wonder if it's nicer to do EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS("foo", some_symbol); because foo isn't something in C scope, but more a string-like identifier... -- If you want to reach me at my work email, use [EMAIL PROTECTED] For development, discussion and tips for power savings, visit http://www.lesswatts.org - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/