Re: [PATCH 00/21] KVM: x86/MMU: Formalize the Shadow MMU

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Mon Mar 20 2023 - 15:18:11 EST


On Thu, Feb 02, 2023, Ben Gardon wrote:
> Patches 4-6 prepare for the refactor by adding files and exporting
> functions.

For future reference, please do not conflate "export" with "make globally visible"
(here and in many of the changelogs). The distinction matters, especially for
modules, as an exported symbol is quite different than a globally visible symbol.

We (sadly) lose sight of this in KVM far too often due kvm.ko exporting an asburd
number of symbols for kvm-{amd,intel}.ko, and as a result we've ended up with
non-KVM code using helpers that realy should be KVM-only. This is something I
hope to remedy in the near-ish future, and so I want us to start getting the
terminology right.