linux-kernel - Re: does CONFIG_UNUSED_SYMBOLS have any value anymore?

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Message-ID: <469F749F.8030606@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
Date:	Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:26:39 +0200
From:	Stefan Richter <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de>
To:	"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@...dspring.com>
CC:	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>
Subject: Re: does CONFIG_UNUSED_SYMBOLS have any value anymore?

Robert P. J. Day wrote:
...
> it's not clear if that means that it was a *one-time* transition
> aid which is now unnecessary, or whether it's an *ongoing* aid which
> might be used at any time.  currently, there are no invocations of
> EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL[_GPL] anywhere in the tree.  so does that mean
> this feature can be tossed?  or might it still be used every so often?

git-blame (or qgit, which I actually used) points from this part of
lib/Kconfig.debug to the following chunk in
Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt:

What:	Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
	(temporary transition config option provided until then)
	The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
When:	before 2.6.19
Why:	Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
	and are often a sign of "wrong API"
Who:	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-=-=== -=== =--==
http://arcgraph.de/sr/
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