Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] Documentation: extend use case for EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()

[Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 01:10:44AM +0200, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> Great, thanks. This seems to be in alignment with those who have all along 
> said
> they've used EXPORT_SYMBOL() to mean what EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() users now use it
> for. Nevertheless -- maintainers should know that some stubborn developers use
> EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() for its technical merit should violators abuse those
> symbols.

FYI, I think the naming here is really unfortunate.  If if was named
EXPORT_SYMBOL_INTERNAL as just a kernel export for specific uses we'd
be much better off in being able to explain what it actually does.

Even better would e a system were we have specific export groups, e.g.
symbols would be "core" "mm", "vfs", or "legacy_hack_for_drm" and any
consumer would specificly declare which symbol they pull in.

This would have a couple advantages:

 - anyone adding an export needs to think hard into which category
   it falls, and think again if exporting really makes sense
 - it's reasy to review modules to see if they pull in anything
   unexpected.

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