netdev - Re: [PATCH V2 net] core: Don't attempt to load the "" driver.

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Message-Id: <20140905.143241.114624370748725493.davem@davemloft.net>
Date:	Fri, 05 Sep 2014 14:32:41 -0700 (PDT)
From:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
To:	David.Laight@...LAB.COM
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH V2 net] core: Don't attempt to load the "" driver.

From: David Laight <David.Laight@...LAB.COM>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 08:55:21 +0000

> Requests like 'ifconfig ""' cause dev_load(net, "") be called, since
> request_module("") return 0 (success) this generates the error message:
> "Loading kernel module for a network device with CAP_SYS_MODULE (deprecated).  Use CAP_NET_ADMIN and alias netdev- instead."
> 
> Since dev_load() doesn't have to work, just ignore such names.
> 
> Signed-off-by: David Laight <david.laight@...lab.com>
> ---
> 
> V2: Added sign off.
> 
> If you search for the above error message, you'll find a lot of complaints.
> While the applications shouldn't be calling an SIOCxxx ioctl with ifr_name[0] == 0
> the kernel shouldn't be tracing the error either.
> 
> Due to the complaints from users, this might be a backport candidate.

I have to say that I don't like this.

Why is request_module("") signalled with success unconditionally?
A module didn't get loaded, so semantically this behavior makes
no sense at all.

I would rather than simply request_module() signal an error in this
case, and then _NOBODY_ has to have all of this duplicated logic to
check for name[0]=='\0' throughout all of the call chains leading to
request_module().
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