Re: [RFC] dynamic syscalls revisited

From: Steven Rostedt
Date: Mon Dec 06 2004 - 13:06:57 EST


On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 10:32 -0700, Zwane Mwaikambo wrote:

>
> I didn't know we were on a crusade to end all binary modules at all costs.
> Why not just make _all_ symbols in the kernel EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL then? I
> really believe this is taking things to new levels of silliness, we should
> also possibly consider adding code in glibc to stop proprietary
> libraries/applications from running. What do you think?

Personally? I don't really care. But what goes in the main linux kernel
is decided by Linus, and he doesn't want dynamic system calls because...

Back in 2000 Linus wrote:

The problem is that dynamic system calls are not going to happen.

Why?

License issues. I will not allow system calls to be added from modules.
Because I do not think that adding a system call is a valid thing for a
module to do. It's that easy.

It's the old thing about "hooks". You must not sidestep the GPL by just
putting a hook in place. And dynamic system calls are the ultimate hook.

Linus


And I was just trying to solve the one reason that I can understand why
Linus doesn't want dynamic system calls. If Linus had not stated this, I
would not be changing my original patch (which is still available and
doesn't do any of this nastiness).

-- Steve
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