linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] libosd: Remove ignored _

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Message-ID: <1540591147.66186.127.camel@acm.org>
Date:   Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:59:07 -0700
From:   Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@....org>
To:     Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>
Cc:     ooo@...ctrozaur.com, Nathan Chancellor <natechancellor@...il.com>,
        "James E.J. Bottomley" <jejb@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        "Martin K. Petersen" <martin.petersen@...cle.com>,
        linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org, LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        hch@...radead.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] libosd: Remove ignored __weak attribute

On Fri, 2018-10-26 at 14:36 -0700, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 2:30 PM Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@....org> wrote:
> > 
> > On Fri, 2018-10-26 at 14:00 -0700, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> > > On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 11:01 AM Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@....org> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > On Fri, 2018-10-26 at 10:54 -0700, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> > > > > If creating one instance of this variable is a functional change, I
> > > > > can't help but suspect the original code was wrong.  But maybe Bart,
> > > > > Boaz, or Christoph can clarify or have more thoughts on this?  Looks
> > > > > like Boaz added this header in commit de258bf5e638 ("[SCSI] libosd:
> > > > > OSDv1 Headers").
> > > > 
> > > > Hi Nick and Nathan,
> > > > 
> > > > Had you noticed the following e-mail from early October:
> > > > https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=153849955503249?
> > > 
> > > From this subthread with Linus, removal of the exofs fs and scsi osd
> > > code would be a user visible change and is not an option. See:
> > > https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/10/27/3
> > > https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/10/27/44
> > 
> > Hi Nick,
> > 
> > Linus wrote that removing a filesystem is considered a userspace breakage
> > if a user notices. The key part is "if a user notices". Who are the exofs
> > users?
> 
> See my thoughts on this in https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/10/27/27.
> Particularly the part about the IMO catch 22.
> 
> Neither you nor I can claim "there are none."

That's not completely correct. The standard approach to check whether or not
a driver is still being used is to check its git history. If the number of
contributors is low and it was several years ago that a new feature was added
or a bug has been fixed it is likely that nobody is using that driver anymore.

Bart.