On March 30, 2026 11:25:33 PM PDT, Andy Shevchenko [off-list ref] wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 02:46:45PM -0700, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:

quoted

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 11:24:45PM +0300, Andy Shevchenko wrote:

quoted

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 02:40:47PM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:

...

quoted

quoted

quoted

-static void __exit software_node_exit(void)
-{
-	ida_destroy(&swnode_root_ids);
-	kset_unregister(swnode_kset);
 }
-__exitcall(software_node_exit);

Why? What's wrong with the __exitcall?

It's dead code. Always was, always will be.

Maybe split in a separate patch, but I sometimes feel the idea of "one
change" is taken to extreme and adds to both developer's and maintainers
burden by needing to keep track of extra patches.

Why does __exitcall() exist then? It's also used in other places.
I think it's generally good to have a possibility to clean up
after run.

The code section will be discarded when the kernel finishes booting so it only increases image size on disk. 

A bit of archaeology:

The first time it appeared was in the bcc2152647b8 ("Import 2.4.0-test3pre3").
Then somehow spread a bit (but not much).

And it shows how useful it is. Maybe it had some purpose a long time ago, but at present time this code will never be executed since it cannot be built as a module.

Thanks. 

-- 
Dmitry