Re: [PATCH 04/23] kbuild: doc: remove the description about shipped files

[Nicolas Schier]

On Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 11:16:32PM +0900, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> The use of shipped files is discouraged in the upstream kernel these
> days. [1]
> 
> Downstream Makefiles have the freedom to use shipped files or other
> options to handle binaries, but this is not what should be advertised
> in the upstream document.
> 
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=wgSEi_ZrHdqr=20xv+d6dr5G895CbOAi8ok+7-CQUN=fQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> 
> Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> 
>  Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst | 35 +++-----------------------------
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 32 deletions(-)

Do you want to remove the TODO point refering to *_shipped files from
Documentation/kbuild/makefiles.rst as well?

$ git grep -Hrne _shipped Documentation/
Documentation/kbuild/makefiles.rst:1668:- Describe how kbuild supports shipped files with _shipped.

> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst
> index 7eceb9a65e9c..1afa6b1b4090 100644
> --- a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst
[...]
> @@ -240,35 +235,11 @@ module 8123.ko, which is built from the following files::
>  		default:
>  			$(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) M=$$PWD
>  
> -		# Module specific targets
> -		genbin:
> -			echo "X" > 8123_bin.o_shipped
> -
>  	The split in example 2 is questionable due to the simplicity of
>  	each file; however, some external modules use makefiles
>  	consisting of several hundred lines, and here it really pays
>  	off to separate the kbuild part from the rest.
>  
> -3.3 Binary Blobs
> -----------------
> -
> -	Some external modules need to include an object file as a blob.
> -	kbuild has support for this, but requires the blob file to be
> -	named <filename>_shipped. When the kbuild rules kick in, a copy
> -	of <filename>_shipped is created with _shipped stripped off,
> -	giving us <filename>. This shortened filename can be used in
> -	the assignment to the module.
> -
> -	Throughout this section, 8123_bin.o_shipped has been used to
> -	build the kernel module 8123.ko; it has been included as
> -	8123_bin.o::
> -
> -		8123-y := 8123_if.o 8123_pci.o 8123_bin.o
> -
> -	Although there is no distinction between the ordinary source
> -	files and the binary file, kbuild will pick up different rules
> -	when creating the object file for the module.
> -

I think renumbering the following sections would provide a more consistent document.  If you think that keeping the numbering constant:  would you mind adding a note about section 3.3 being removed?
(And possibly as well in the table of contents?)

Either way,

Reviewed-by: Nicolas Schier <n.schier@xxxxxx>

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