linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] drivers/char: remove /dev/kmem for good

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Message-Id: <20210324122412.e77247e6d3259d5493951019@linux-foundation.org>
Date:   Wed, 24 Mar 2021 12:24:12 -0700
From:   Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
To:     David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        "Alexander A. Klimov" <grandmaster@...klimov.de>,
        Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Alexandre Belloni <alexandre.belloni@...tlin.com>,
        Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Andrey Zhizhikin <andrey.zhizhikin@...ca-geosystems.com>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>,
        Brian Cain <bcain@...eaurora.org>,
        Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@...ibm.com>,
        Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@...roup.eu>,
        Chris Zankel <chris@...kel.net>,
        Corentin Labbe <clabbe@...libre.com>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>,
        Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@...ux.ibm.com>,
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        Xiaoming Ni <nixiaoming@...wei.com>,
        Yoshinori Sato <ysato@...rs.osdn.me>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] drivers/char: remove /dev/kmem for good


> Let's remove /dev/kmem, which is unused and obsolete.

I grabbed these.  Silently - the cc list is amazing ;)

I was wondering if it would be better to permanently disable /dev/kmem
in Kconfig along with a comment "if you really want this thing then
email peeps@...ces with a very good reason why".  Let that ride for a
year or three then blam.

But this is so much more attractive, and it certainly sounds like it's
worth any damage it might cause.

We do tend to think about distros.  I bet there are a number of weird
embedded type systems using /dev/kmem - it's amazing what sorts of
hacks those people will put up with the get something out the door. 
But those systems tend to carry a lot of specialized changes anyway, so
they can just add "revert David's patch" to their pile.