linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH 0/4] file: export functions for binder module

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Date:   Tue, 31 Jul 2018 22:27:01 +0800
From:   Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
To:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Christian Brauner <christian@...uner.io>
Cc:     viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, arve@...roid.com, tkjos@...roid.com,
        maco@...roid.com, rlove@...gle.com
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 0/4] file: export functions for binder module

On Mon, 2018-07-30 at 09:34 -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 04:37:06PM +0200, Christian Brauner wrote:
> > Hey,
> > 
> > We currently plan on turning the Android binder and ashmem driver into a
> > module. We have seen more and more requests by users to be able to use
> > the binder and ashmem features without wanting to convince each distro
> > to enable it by default in their kernel. Debian already started to carry
> > patches for turning them into modules.
> 
> Yikes.  I really wish Debian would stick more to upstream rather than
> picking random crap like this up.

My hope is that this is a temporary bodge.

The way this happened was:

1. Anbox was proposed as an addition to Debian, including the ashmem
and binder drivers as out-of-tree modules.
2. It was objected that these drivers were already part of the linux
package (though not currently built), and it was bad practice to add a
second copy that would need separate security updates.
3. The kernel team was requested to enable these drivers.
4. I agreed to enable them as modules (like most other drivers).
5. I then discovered that they couldn't be built as modules without
patching, due to these missing exports.

(So how does Anbox build them as modules?  Well, you're really not
going to like this:
https://github.com/anbox/anbox-modules/blob/master/binder/deps.c )

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
[W]e found...that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had
thought. I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going
to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
                                                 - Maurice Wilkes, 1949

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