linux-kernel - Re: Dead code by symbols

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Message-ID: <ZuqxpBRVSYIk1Hkm@gallifrey>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:55:32 +0000
From: "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <linux@...blig.org>
To: Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	kees@...nel.org
Subject: Re: Dead code by symbols

* Christoph Hellwig (hch@...radead.org) wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 01:39:35PM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> > > Now, it does take some more guesswork, for example an unused function
> > > which was added a couple of years back, might be something that's
> > > there for consistency,
> > 
> > I know people will find reasons to do something like that, but we really
> > *shouldn't* be maintaining / dragging along dead code that nobody might ever
> > use.
> 
> There never is any reason to keep dead code around.

Yeh I mostly agree; and indeed I'll be sending many many patches to remove
the bucket loads of dead code I find; but as I say, there's a really
big variation from the dead-for-20 years, to relatively new, to 
functions that seem to make sense next to the file they're part of.
So I'll get to those later, I'll get rid of the very dead ones first.

Dave

> 
-- 
 -----Open up your eyes, open up your mind, open up your code -------   
/ Dr. David Alan Gilbert    |       Running GNU/Linux       | Happy  \ 
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