Re: [PATCH] module: remove MODULE_VERSION()

[Petr Pavlu]

On 3/13/26 4:46 PM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 03:20:42PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>> Module "versions" do not make sense as the kernel is built all at once,
>> the "version" is the overall kernel version number, so modules can not
>> really be described as having a unique version given that they rely on
>> the infrastructure of the whole kernel.
>>
>> For now, just make this an "empty" define, to keep existing code
>> building properly as the tree is slowly purged of the use of this over
>> time.
>>
>> This macro will be removed entirely in the future when there are no
>> in-tree users.
>>
>> Cc: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@xxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Shyam Saini <shyamsaini@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Thorsten Blum <thorsten.blum@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>>  include/linux/module.h | 56 +++++++++---------------------------------
>>  kernel/params.c        | 30 ----------------------
>>  2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 75 deletions(-)
> 
> 
> Sami just pointed out to me off-list that maybe I should also drop the
> srcversion stuff too.  I'll gladly do that too, does anyone know if
> anyone even uses that anymore?

Despite its name, I believe srcversion is primarily used to identify
binaries. Nowadays, modules contain build IDs, which is a standard
mechanism for this. The information is available already via
/sys/module/<module>/notes/.note.gnu.build-id, so removing the
srcversion data makes sense to me.

-- 
Thanks,
Petr