On 29/12/2018 13:10, Stefan Wahren wrote:

Hi,

during development i noticed that hns3_enet.c is compiled even without any changes to this file.

I think the reason for this is the usage of VERMAGIC_STRING in this file. So it would be nice if you could somehow replace this define.

Kind regards
Stefan

I reported this issue internally some time ago. Apparently it is 
required to reference VERMAGIC_STRING, but I don't know why.

I see that this driver has similar issue:
https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/drivers/net/ethernet/netronome/nfp/nfp_main.c#L34

Another annoying thing I find is the amount of references to UTS_RELEASE 
(which also causes rebuilds), like:
https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c#L281

Can't we just make a static string for these, to save the rebuilding the 
dependent modules?

Thanks,
John