[PATCH] Add EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL and EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL_GPL

Temporarily add EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL and EXPORT_UNUSED_SYMBOL_GPL.  These
will be used as a transition measure for symbols that aren't used in the
kernel and are on the way out.  When a module uses such a symbol, a warning
is printk'd at modprobe time.

The main reason for removing unused exports is size: eacho export takes
roughly between 100 and 150 bytes of kernel space in the binary.  This
patch gives users the option to immediately get this size gain via a config
option.

Signed-off-by: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
index 027285d0c26c..033ac91da07a 100644
--- a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
@@ -177,6 +177,16 @@ Who:	Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
 
 ---------------------------
 
+What:   Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
+        (temporary transition config option provided until then)
+        The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
+When:   before 2.6.19
+Why:    Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
+        and are often a sign of "wrong API"
+Who:    Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
 What:   remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(tasklist_lock)
 When:   August 2006
 Files:  kernel/fork.c