Re: [PATCH] drm/vmwgfx: Don't use UTS_RELEASE directly

From: Maaz Mombasawala

Date: Wed Jun 10 2026 - 18:00:51 EST


On 5/4/26 12:34 AM, Uwe Kleine-König (The Capable Hub) wrote:
> UTS_RELEASE evaluates to a static string and changes quite easily (e.g.
> uncommitted changes in the source tree or new commits). So when checking
> if a patch introduces changes to the resulting binary each usage of
> UTS_RELEASE is source of annoyance.
>
> Instead of using UTS_RELEASE directly use init_utsname()->release which
> evaluates to the same string but with that a change of UTS_RELEASE
> doesn't affect vmwgfx_drv.o.
>
> Signed-off-by: Uwe Kleine-König (The Capable Hub) <u.kleine-koenig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Hello,
>
> an alternative way to address this is to drop the kernel version string
> completely. But I'm not sure how redundant this really is so I chose the
> init_utsname() approach.
>
> Best regards
> Uwe
>
> drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c | 4 ++--
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c
> index 0f101aedb49a..12f5f288ae15 100644
> --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c
> +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c
> @@ -24,7 +24,6 @@
> #include <drm/drm_sysfs.h>
> #include <drm/ttm/ttm_range_manager.h>
> #include <drm/ttm/ttm_placement.h>
> -#include <generated/utsrelease.h>
>
> #ifdef CONFIG_X86
> #include <asm/hypervisor.h>
> @@ -35,6 +34,7 @@
> #include <linux/dma-mapping.h>
> #include <linux/module.h>
> #include <linux/pci.h>
> +#include <linux/utsname.h>
> #include <linux/version.h>
> #include <linux/vmalloc.h>
>
> @@ -1115,7 +1115,7 @@ static int vmw_driver_load(struct vmw_private *dev_priv, u32 pci_id)
> vmw_print_sm_type(dev_priv);
> vmw_host_printf("vmwgfx: Module Version: %d.%d.%d (kernel: %s)",
> VMWGFX_DRIVER_MAJOR, VMWGFX_DRIVER_MINOR,
> - VMWGFX_DRIVER_PATCHLEVEL, UTS_RELEASE);
> + VMWGFX_DRIVER_PATCHLEVEL, init_utsname()->release);
> vmw_write_driver_id(dev_priv);
>
> dev_priv->pm_nb.notifier_call = vmwgfx_pm_notifier;
>
> base-commit: 254f49634ee16a731174d2ae34bc50bd5f45e731

LGTM!

Reviewed-by: Maaz Mombasawala <maaz.mombasawala@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Sorry for missing this patch earlier. Unfortunately our maintainer Zack
is out for two weeks so we'll merge this patch at that time.

--
Maaz Mombasawala <maaz.mombasawala@xxxxxxxxxxxx>