linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] writeback: remove unused parameter from balance_dirty

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Message-ID: <20171002180237.y4vyoqp6eik7vwld@dhcp22.suse.cz>
Date:   Mon, 2 Oct 2017 20:02:37 +0200
From:   Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>
To:     Tahsin Erdogan <tahsin@...gle.com>
Cc:     Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
        Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>,
        Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov.dev@...il.com>,
        Jeff Layton <jlayton@...hat.com>,
        Matthew Wilcox <mawilcox@...rosoft.com>,
        Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@...ionext.com>,
        Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>,
        Nikolay Borisov <nborisov@...e.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] writeback: remove unused parameter from
 balance_dirty_pages()

On Mon 02-10-17 10:20:37, Tahsin Erdogan wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 12:56 AM, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org> wrote:
> > balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited doesn't really need mapping as well. All
> > it needs is the inode and we already have it in callers. So would it
> > make sense to refactor a bit further and make its argument an inode?
> 
> My only concern is that, balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited() is an
> exported function so changing its signature could potentially break
> some drivers?

All in-kernel drivers would have to be updated of course but exported
symbols are not considered a stable API. It's not like we would want to
change this for no good reason so the change should be done only if
this makes sense in general. This is something for IO/FS guys to tell.

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs