This sort of thing makes correct unloading hard, but in my eyes it
is an argument for changing the module interface to something better
and say "that thing CAN'T be a module of its own!"
What if we *require* modules to use some open/close reference count that
don't change so often as to be a performance problem?
It makes the unloading/reloading problem easier, similiar to
mount/umount.
It'll work for lots of modules, such as:
* drivers for hardware devices, char, block, and NIC.
* filesystems
Things with no easy refcounting (and it cannot even be grafted on)
will have to be non-modular, or folded into some parent module.
Maybe IP connection tracking can't be modular with these rules - so
what? Make it compiled-in, or a part of the IPV4-module. So
if you really need to load and unload that you unload the
ipv4_with_conntrack module and then load a ipv4_without_conntrack
module.
To me, it seems like the current module interface is too fine-grained,
and that cause trouble. I.e. the overhead of correct refcounting
is so high in some cases that it isn't used - causing trouble
with safe unloading. The solution is to say no to such modules.
Making them work isn't easy - but why try?
Helge Hafting
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