Re: [PATCH 00/10 net-next v3] Convert CONFIG_IPV6 to built-in and remove stubs

From: Fernando Fernandez Mancera

Date: Wed Mar 18 2026 - 06:19:35 EST


On 3/17/26 8:49 PM, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
On Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:00:56 +0100 Fernando Fernandez Mancera wrote:
Historically, the Linux kernel has supported compiling the IPv6 stack as
a loadable module. While this made sense in the early days of IPv6
adoption, modern deployments and distributions overwhelmingly either
build IPv6 directly into the kernel (CONFIG_IPV6=y) or disable it
entirely (CONFIG_IPV6=n). The modular IPv6 use-case offers image size
and memory savings for specific setups, this benefit is outweighed by
the architectural burden it imposes on the subsystems on implementation
and maintenance.

Hi Fernando,

NIPA flags a few failures, still:

https://netdev.bots.linux.dev/contest.html?pw-n=0&branch=net-next-2026-03-17--18-00&pw-n=0&pass=0


Hi Jakub,

This is test is applying the series in top of bpf tree which has this commit https://github.com/kernel-patches/bpf/commit/972787479ee73006fddb5e59ab5c8e733810ff42

AFAICS, net-next tree do not have it yet. I do not think I can do much about it for now. Will wait until they are merged and rebase in top of it.

Thanks,
Fernando.

See stderr for stack trace. The BPF build issue seems to be:

../net/bpf/test_run.c:1160:8: error: use of undeclared identifier 'ipv6_bpf_stub'
1160 | if (!ipv6_bpf_stub) {
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
make[5]: *** [../scripts/Makefile.build:289: net/bpf/test_run.o] Error 1
make[4]: *** [../scripts/Makefile.build:546: net/bpf] Error 2
make[4]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....