Re: [PATCH V3 1/1] ublk: add io_uring based userspace block driver

From: Sagi Grimberg
Date: Mon Jul 04 2022 - 12:20:40 EST



diff --git a/drivers/block/Kconfig b/drivers/block/Kconfig
index fdb81f2794cd..d218089cdbec 100644
--- a/drivers/block/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/block/Kconfig
@@ -408,6 +408,12 @@ config BLK_DEV_RBD
If unsure, say N.
+config BLK_DEV_UBLK
+ bool "Userspace block driver"

Really? why compile this to the kernel and not tristate as loadable
module?
So far, this is only one reason: task_work_add() is required, which
isn't exported for modules.

So why not exporting it?
Doesn't seem like a good justification to build it into the kernel.

Sagi,

If I understand correctly, the task_work_add function is quite a core
API that we probably want to avoid exposing directly to (out-of-tree)
modules? I agree, though, it would be great to have this buildable as a
module for general use cases. Would it make sense to have it exposed
through a thin built-in wrapper, specific to UBD, which is exported, and
therefore able to invoke that function? Is it a reasonable approach?

All I'm saying is that either we should expose it (or an interface to
it) if it has merit, or use something else (use a workqueue).
Having a block driver driver builtin is probably not the answer.