linux-kernel - namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL"

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Message-ID: <47515D39.9030900@rtr.ca>
Date:	Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:10:17 -0500
From:	Mark Lord <lkml@....ca>
To:	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
Cc:	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...e.de>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Tejun Heo <htejun@...il.com>,
	Linux Containers <containers@...ts.osdl.org>,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, cornelia.huck@...ibm.com,
	stern@...land.harvard.edu, kay.sievers@...y.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...l.org>
Subject: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL"

> Now that we have network namespace support merged it is time to
> revisit the sysfs support so we can remove the dependency on !SYSFS.
...

Now that the namespace updates are part of 2.6.24,
there is a major inconsistency in network EXPORT_SYMBOLs.

It used to be that an external network module could get away without
having to add a MODULE_LICENSE("GPL*") line to the source.

In support of that, common networking functions (still) use EXPORT_SYMBOL()
rather than the more restrictive EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

Eg.  register_netdev(), sk_alloc(), __dev_get_by_name().

But now, none of those three are actually usable by default,
because they all require "init_net", which is EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

So.. It appears that one of three things should really happen next:

1) Change the other exports to also be EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

2) Have register_netdev, sk_alloc, and __dev_get_by_name default
to using init_net when NULL is specified in the namespace field.

or 

3) Change init_net to be EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

Right now, things are just a bit inconsistent, and it's not clear
whether the namespace changes intended this consequence or not.

Cheers

(as for me, I think all kernel modules are GPL, whether they have
 the MODULE_LICENSE line or not, so flames to /dev/null on that).
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