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From: Paul Gortmaker <paul.gortmaker@windriver•com>
To: Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver•com>
Cc: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta•com>,
	David Miller <davem@davemloft•net>,
	netdev@vger•kernel.org, allan.stephens@windriver•com,
	Jon Maloy <jon.maloy@ericsson•com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] tipc: cleanup function namespace
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:53:21 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <4CB74391.9020400@windriver.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20101014012951.GA2186@localhost.localdomain>

On 10-10-13 09:29 PM, Neil Horman wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 08:23:24PM -0400, Paul Gortmaker wrote:
>> On 10-10-13 07:20 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>>> Do some cleanups of TIPC based on make namespacecheck
>>>     1. Don't export unused symbols
>>>     2. Eliminate dead code
>>>     3. Make functions and variables local
>>>     4. Rename buf_acquire to tipc_buf_acquire since it is used in several files
>>>
>>> Compile tested only.
>>> This make break out of tree kernel modules that depend on TIPC routines.
>>
>> Hi Stephen,
>>
>> When I first started looking at TIPC code, I too came to the
>> same conclusion as you did and was about to do #1,2,3 -- but
>> then I was told that the exported symbols were part of an API
>> and might be in use by folks here and there as per this thread:
>>
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/netdev@vger.kernel.org/msg30208.html
>>
> I think its telling the the argument in the above thread for keeping the API
> were that users of it were out there and 'likely to contribute' in the future.
> That thread was 3 years ago.  They might be using the API from outside the
> kernel tree, but they're not planning on contributing.  As Christoph noted,
> they're freeloaders.  The community really doesn't need or want to maintain an
> API like that.  If these users are your customers, and removing the API is
> unacceptable, perhaps its time to move the entire TIPC module out of tree.

As I'd said -- I don't know what the use cases of these API users are,
and so as far as I know they aren't customers either.  For what it is
worth, know that I personally wouldn't try and use a business case to
justify a technically wrong decision here on netdev anyway.

I was just describing the history of the situation, and suggesting
one possible slower approach of phasing it out as a courtesy to those
users, in the same way that the kernel community has extended that
same courtesy with other things in feature-removal.txt

In the end, since Jon is OK with the removal, and is in the process of
communicating this to the API users he is aware of, I sure don't have
any reason to try and save the API.  If folks are good with having it
just go away overnight, then great -- I'll be just as happy to see it
disappear as you and Stephen.  So, a long winded way of saying...

Acked-by: Paul Gortmaker <paul.gortmaker@windriver•com>

Paul.

> 
> Neil
> 


  reply	other threads:[~2010-10-14 17:53 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 35+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-10-13  0:25 [PATCH net-next 1/5] tipc: Enhance enabling and disabling of Ethernet bearers Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13  0:25 ` [PATCH net-next 2/5] tipc: Simplify bearer shutdown logic Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13 14:39   ` Neil Horman
2010-10-14 23:58     ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-15 10:48       ` Neil Horman
2010-10-13  0:25 ` [PATCH net-next 3/5] tipc: Optimizations to bearer enabling logic Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13 14:58   ` Neil Horman
2010-10-15  1:11     ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-15 11:00       ` Neil Horman
2010-10-15 21:31         ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-18 10:50           ` Neil Horman
2010-10-18 21:43             ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-18 23:59               ` Neil Horman
2010-10-21 11:31               ` David Miller
2010-10-13  0:25 ` [PATCH net-next 4/5] tipc: Rework data structures that track neighboring nodes and links Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13 16:24   ` Neil Horman
2010-10-13  0:25 ` [PATCH net-next 5/5] tipc: clean out all instances of #if 0'd unused code Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13 16:26   ` Neil Horman
2010-10-13 17:08     ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-13 17:23       ` Neil Horman
2010-10-13 21:28       ` David Miller
2010-10-13 23:20         ` [PATCH net-next] tipc: cleanup function namespace Stephen Hemminger
2010-10-14  0:23           ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-14  0:32             ` Stephen Hemminger
2010-10-14  1:29             ` Neil Horman
2010-10-14 17:53               ` Paul Gortmaker [this message]
2010-10-14 18:33                 ` Stephen Hemminger
2010-10-14 19:49                   ` Jon Maloy
2010-10-14 21:44                   ` Paul Gortmaker
2010-10-14 22:13                     ` Stephen Hemminger
2010-10-15 11:01                       ` Neil Horman
2010-10-15 16:59                         ` Jon Maloy
2010-10-14 13:31           ` Jon Maloy
2010-10-16 18:56           ` David Miller
2010-10-13 13:42 ` [PATCH net-next 1/5] tipc: Enhance enabling and disabling of Ethernet bearers Neil Horman

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