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Message-ID: <47B93512.6000107@southpole.se>
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:34:42 +0100
From: Jonas Bonn <jonas@...thpole.se>
To: Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
CC: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, olof@...om.net, sam@...nborg.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add PCI_DEVICE_TABLE macro
>
> And again, what does this buy us?
>
Clarity and simplicity, I hope... there are a bunch of definitions
scattered about the kernel that omit the __devinitdata modifier despite
the documentation stating that it should always be there. The
definition really should have been const, which wasn't possible before
but has become so with the addition of the __devinitconst attribute.
Furthermore, there are definitions that use "const" and __devinitdata,
which is explicitly wrong but the compiler doesn't catch section
mismatches if there's only one such one case in the module (which is
often the case).
Adding the __devinitconst modifier where there was nothing before buys
us memory. Adding the const modifier gives the compiler a chance to do
its thing. Changing __devinitdata to __devinitconst where it was wrong
actually fixes some compiler errors in older (mid-release) kernels that
were patched over by "removing" the section attribute altogether (which
wastes memory).
Adding the macro (Olof's idea, not mine) makes it pretty difficult to
get this definition wrong... I'll do the rest of the cleanup, but I need
to know whether it's better to use a macro like this, or to open code
the definitions. I prefer the macro approach...
Hope this makes some sense...
/Jonas
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