The error code -EEXIST is reserved by the kernel module loader to indicate that a module with the same name is already loaded. When a module's init function returns -EEXIST, kmod interprets this as "module already loaded" and reports success instead of failure [1].
The kernel module loader will include a safety net that provides -EEXIST to -EBUSY with a warning [2], and a documentation patch has been sent to prevent future occurrences [3]. These affected code paths were identified using a static analysis tool [4] that traces -EEXIST returns to module_init(). The tool was developed with AI assistance and all findings were manually validated. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/ [1] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/ [2] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20251218-dev-module-init-eexists-modules-docs-v1-0-361569aa7...@samsung.com/ [3] Link: https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/4913469 [4] Signed-off-by: Daniel Gomez <[email protected]> --- Daniel Gomez (2): target: replace -EEXIST with -EBUSY scsi: fcoe: replace -EEXIST with -EBUSY drivers/scsi/fcoe/fcoe_transport.c | 2 +- drivers/target/target_core_hba.c | 2 +- 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) --- base-commit: 8f0b4cce4481fb22653697cced8d0d04027cb1e8 change-id: 20251218-dev-module-init-eexists-linux-scsi-4e91a16f7bdd Best regards, -- Daniel Gomez <[email protected]>
