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namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL"

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From: Mark Lord <lkml@...>
To: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@...>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...>, Greg KH <greg@...>, Tejun Heo <htejun@...>, Linux Containers <containers@...>, <netdev@...>, <cornelia.huck@...>, <stern@...>, <kay.sievers@...>, <linux-kernel@...>, Andrew Morton <akpm@...>, Herbert Xu <herbert@...>, David Miller <davem@...>, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...>
Subject: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL"
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 9:10 am

> Now that we have network namespace support merged it is time to
...

Now that the namespace updates are part of 2.6.24,
there is a major inconsistency in network EXPORT_SYMBOLs.

It used to be that an external network module could get away without
having to add a MODULE_LICENSE("GPL*") line to the source.

In support of that, common networking functions (still) use EXPORT_SYMBOL()
rather than the more restrictive EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

Eg.  register_netdev(), sk_alloc(), __dev_get_by_name().

But now, none of those three are actually usable by default,
because they all require "init_net", which is EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

So.. It appears that one of three things should really happen next:

1) Change the other exports to also be EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

2) Have register_netdev, sk_alloc, and __dev_get_by_name default
to using init_net when NULL is specified in the namespace field.

or 

3) Change init_net to be EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.

Right now, things are just a bit inconsistent, and it's not clear
whether the namespace changes intended this consequence or not.

Cheers

(as for me, I think all kernel modules are GPL, whether they have
 the MODULE_LICENSE line or not, so flames to /dev/null on that).
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Messages in current thread:
[PATCH 0/10] sysfs network namespace support, Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:06 am)
namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 9:10 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Stephen Hemminger, (Sat Dec 1, 3:17 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Stephen Hemminger, (Sat Dec 1, 8:30 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Alan Cox, (Sun Dec 2, 9:51 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", , (Sun Dec 2, 3:56 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 11:34 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Romano Giannetti, (Mon Dec 3, 4:24 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Mon Dec 3, 2:03 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", David Miller, (Mon Dec 3, 2:13 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Arjan van de Ven, (Mon Dec 3, 11:34 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Stephen Hemminger, (Sun Dec 2, 12:23 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Ben Greear, (Sun Dec 2, 3:28 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Patrick McHardy, (Sun Dec 2, 4:03 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Mon Dec 3, 1:35 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Ben Greear, (Mon Dec 3, 2:19 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Tue Dec 4, 1:59 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Ben Greear, (Tue Dec 4, 2:57 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", David Miller, (Wed Dec 5, 2:07 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Tue Dec 4, 4:01 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Daniel Lezcano, (Mon Dec 3, 2:57 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Tue Dec 4, 2:03 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", David Miller, (Wed Dec 5, 2:01 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Ben Greear, (Tue Dec 4, 2:44 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Tue Dec 4, 3:17 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", David Miller, (Wed Dec 5, 2:14 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Ben Greear, (Tue Dec 4, 3:35 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Tue Dec 4, 4:09 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Daniel Lezcano, (Tue Dec 4, 11:19 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Adrian Bunk, (Sun Dec 2, 4:43 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Patrick McHardy, (Sun Dec 2, 5:59 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Denis V. Lunev, (Mon Dec 3, 4:33 am)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Adrian Bunk, (Sun Dec 2, 9:14 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 10:02 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 3:54 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Alan Cox, (Sat Dec 1, 3:23 pm)
RE: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", David Schwartz, (Sun Dec 2, 8:02 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Alan Cox, (Sun Dec 2, 8:14 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Stephen Hemminger, (Sat Dec 1, 3:38 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 4:13 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 4:21 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 6:13 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 4:52 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Arjan van de Ven, (Sat Dec 1, 4:29 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 6:12 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 7:13 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 7:51 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 9:08 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Jiri Slaby, (Sat Dec 1, 7:24 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 9:14 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Alan Cox, (Sat Dec 1, 3:45 pm)
Re: namespace support requires network modules to say "GPL", Mark Lord, (Sat Dec 1, 9:13 am)
[PATCH 01/10] sysfs: Make sysfs_mount static again., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:12 am)
[PATCH 02/10] sysfs: Support for preventing unmounts., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:13 am)
[PATCH 03/10] sysfs: sysfs_get_dentry add a sb parameter, Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:16 am)
[PATCH 04/10] sysfs: Implement __sysfs_get_dentry, Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:18 am)
[PATCH 05/10] sysfs: Rename Support multiple superblocks, Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:23 am)
[PATCH 06/10] sysfs: sysfs_chmod_file handle multiple superb..., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:25 am)
[PATCH 07/10] sysfs: Implement sysfs tagged directory support., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:28 am)
[PATCH 08/10] sysfs: Implement sysfs_delete_link and sysfs_r..., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:30 am)
[PATCH 09/10] driver core: Implement tagged directory suppor..., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:33 am)
[PATCH 10/10] net: Enable tagging for net_class directories ..., Eric W. Biederman, (Sat Dec 1, 5:35 am)