[alsa-devel] [OT] visible symbols was Re: asihpi driver -> kernel

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:09:16 +1300,
Eliot Blennerhassett wrote:
> 
> Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > At Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:13:25 +1300,
> > Eliot Blennerhassett wrote:
> >> BTW is there any way to not export functions/variables that are used
> >> only inside the kernel module? (but used between object files that make
> >> up the module so cannot be made static)
> > 
> > Remember that a driver can be built in a kernel, not as a module.
> > 
> >> I.e. if the module was compiled as one huge sourcefile, almost
> >> everything could be static.
> > 
> > You can do it in that way, of course :)
> 
> 
> Hmmm.  Seems to be a general problem whether building a shared library,
> or a kernel module.
> 
> I.e. as soon as I have more than one source file in my lib or module, I
> suddenly have to make some functions not static, and they become visible
> globally.
> 
> Is there no way to compile and link a.c and b.c so that only specific
> entry points are visible before statically linking ab.o with the rest of
> the kernel or making ab.o into a kernel module.

The global symbols in modules aren't really exported to outside unless
you set EXPORT_SYMBOL*().  The problem is rather a built-in driver.
When you compile the driver in a kernel, it becomes all global to the
kernel (not to modules) because it's a single object in the end.

(For shared libraries, you can set Versions script to restrict the
 exported functions, BTW.)


Anyway, a safer way is to use some unique prefix to each global
function and variables.  In the case of ALSA, usually we use snd_* for
global objects.


Takashi