On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 04:05:16PM +0200, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> Christoph suggested that the explicit _GPL_ can be dropped from the
> module namespace export macro, as it's intended for in-tree modules
> only. It would be possible to resrict it technically, but it was pointed
> out [2] that some cases of using an out-of-tree build of an in-tree
> module with the same name are legitimate. But in that case those also
> have to be GPL anyway so it's unnecessary to spell it out.
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/aflejn_fe-rbs...@infradead.org/ [1]
> Link:
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/cak7lnatrkzhwjgpojcnvdiaodnp%2baeuxgdey5sb_8muzdwt...@mail.gmail.com/
> [2]
> Suggested-by: Christoph Hellwig <h...@infradead.org>
> Reviewed-by: Shivank Garg <shiva...@amd.com>
> Acked-by: Christian Brauner <brau...@kernel.org>
> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <da...@redhat.com>
> Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vba...@suse.cz>
> ---
> Christian asked [1] for EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES() without the _GPL_
> part to avoid controversy converting selected existing EXPORT_SYMBOL().
Thank you!
Reviewed-by: Christian Brauner <brau...@kernel.org>
Am I supposed to take this or how's that going to work?
> Christoph argued [2] that the _FOR_MODULES() export is intended for
> in-tree modules and thus GPL is implied anyway and can be simply dropped
> from the export macro name. Peter agreed [3] about the intention for
> in-tree modules only, although nothing currently enforces it.
>
> It seemed straightforward to add this enforcement, so v1 did that. But
> there were concerns of breaking the (apparently legitimate) usecases of
> loading an updated/development out of tree built version of an in-tree
> module.
>
> So leave out the enforcement part and just drop the _GPL_ from the
> export macro name and so we're left with EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES()
> only. Any in-tree module used in an out-of-tree way will have to be GPL
> anyway by definition.
>
> Current -next has some new instances of EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES()
> in drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_rsa.c by commit b20d6576cdb3 ("serial:
> 8250: export RSA functions"). Hopefully it's resolvable by a merge
> commit fixup and we don't need to provide a temporary alias.
>
> [1]
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250623-warmwasser-giftig-ff656fce89ad@brauner/
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/aflejn_fe-rbs...@infradead.org/
> [3]
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250623142836.gt1613...@noisy.programming.kicks-ass.net/
> ---
