Subject: Re: [2.6 patch] drivers/net/loopback.c: convert to module_init()

From: Al Viro <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:12:14 +0000

On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 05:17:56PM -0800, David Miller wrote:
> From: Adrian Bunk <[email-masked]>
> Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:24:35 +0100
> 
> > This patch converts drivers/net/loopback.c to using module_init().
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <[email-masked]>
> 
> I'm not %100 sure of this one, let's look at the comment you
> are deleting:
> 
> > -/*
> > - *	The loopback device is global so it can be directly referenced
> > - *	by the network code. Also, it must be first on device list.
> > - */
> > -extern int loopback_init(void);
> > -
> 
> in particular notice the part that says "it must be first on the
> device list".
> 
> I'm not sure whether that is important any longer.  It probably isn't,
> but we should verify it before applying such a patch.

There might be practical considerations along the lines of "we want
lookups for loopback to be fast"...