This series documents the -EEXIST error code reservation in the module loader, building on Lucas's patches [1] that add the runtime safety net.
When module_init() returns -EEXIST, kmod interprets this as "module already loaded" and reports success, hiding real init failures. Lucas's patches warn and override this to -EBUSY. These patches document this convention to prevent future cases. This was originally reported in this thread [2]. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/ [1] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/#t [2] Signed-off-by: Daniel Gomez <[email protected]> --- Daniel Gomez (2): module: add -EEXIST documentation docs: hacking: clarify reserved -EEXIST in module_init() Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst | 7 +++++++ kernel/module/main.c | 8 ++++++++ 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+) --- base-commit: e5f0a698b34ed76002dc5cff3804a61c80233a7a change-id: 20251218-dev-module-init-eexists-modules-docs-1dc7cb7a96bb prerequisite-change-id: 20251013-module-warn-ret-59f085298055:v1 prerequisite-patch-id: c3e4f5b5d01c2b48b4c94e51a60469cb74691853 prerequisite-patch-id: 2d5a726a75f3b9d9c256b8478fb6115a92f04354 Best regards, -- Daniel Gomez <[email protected]>
