Re: [PATCH] Re: crc32 and lib.a (was Re: [PATCH] nbd in 2.5.3 does

[Keith Owens]

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002 22:26:43 -0800 (PST), 
"David S. Miller" <[e-mail]> wrote:
>If you have a dependency concern, you put yourself in the
>right initcall group.  You don't depend ever on the order within the
>group, thats the whole idea.  You can't depend on that, so you must
>group things correctly.

Again this is exactly what I argued back in 2000.  I have long held
that the kernel link order is over defined where it should be fuzzy.
Defining an order between groups but not within groups is exactly what
I wanted but I was told that the initialization order must be
explicitly and fully specified for the entire kernel.  Nice to see that
I have been proved right, pity it took this long.  C'est la vie.

The Makefiles still control order within the .text.init section
(__init, module_init).  Many drivers depend on the Makefile getting
that order correct, otherwise probes stuff up.  But which entries are
order sensitive and which ones are from a developer picking a random
place to insert obj-$(CONFIG) is anyone's guess.