linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] relay: Remove unused relay_late_setup

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Message-ID: <CAL+tcoDYOwmt+MqUouc=7DCpMyR3HfOhycgruX_n3+eKJxqv9Q@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2025 14:53:56 +0800
From: Jason Xing <kerneljasonxing@...il.com>
To: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, corbet@....net, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, 
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, linux@...blig.org, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, 
	Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] relay: Remove unused relay_late_setup_files

On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 2:15 PM Andy Shevchenko
<andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 09:12:56AM +0800, Jason Xing wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I noticed this patch "relay: Remove unused relay_late_setup_files"
> > appears in the mm branch already[1], which I totally missed. Sorry for
> > joining the party late.
> >
> > I have a different opinion on this. For me, I'm very cautious about
> > what those so-called legacy interfaces are and how they can work in
> > different cases and what the use case might be... There are still a
> > small number of out-of-tree users like me heavily relying on relayfs
> > mechanism. So my humble opinion is that if you want to remove
> > so-called dead code, probably clearly state why it cannot be used
> > anymore in the future.
> >
> > Dr. David, I appreciate your patch, but please do not simply do the
> > random cleanup work __here__. If you take a deep look at the relayfs,
> > you may find there are other interfaces/functions no one uses in the
> > kernel tree.
> >
> > I'm now checking this kind of patch in relayfs one by one to avoid
> > such a thing happening. I'm trying to maintain it as much as possible
> > since we internally use it in the networking area to output useful
> > information in the hot paths, a little bit like blktrace. BTW, relayfs
> > is really a wonderful one that helps kernel modules communicate with
> > userspace very efficiently. I'm trying to revive it if I can.
>
> Jason, with all of the respect, if you are interested in keeping things going
> on, please add yourself to the MAINTAINERS. It will makes the users of the
> legacy code, Andrew and others, who are doing maintainer's/reviewer's job,
> and you happy.

I didn't subscribe to LKML because they're too many emails everyday.
Because of this, I missed most of changes in relayfs.

Sure, I'm happy to do so, but I'm not sure how/what the detailed
process is here. I would like to ask the core maintainers/developers
in advance.

Any thoughts on this? Andrew, Jens.

>
> Also note, we usually do not care about the out-of-tree users. The main Q here
> why are they out-of-tree for so long time?

It's due to the history problem. Back then, developers were trying to
develop various file systems to add more debuginfo. As you may notice,
blktrace is the one which manifests the answer.

>
> > [1]: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm.git/commit/?h=mm-everything&id=46aa76118ee365c25911806e34d28fc2aa5ef997
>
> --
> With Best Regards,
> Andy Shevchenko
>
>