loadable kernel modules are evil

Posted Dec 2, 2011 22:41 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

I'm sure he didn't mean for it to apply to someone developing the module, though.

What makes you sure? Other quotes?

Only that I credit Linus with common sense and because Linus, like most people, but more, often makes terse, sweeping generalizations that aren't intended to cover every corner case.

In fact, it's about as quick and easy to reboot that test system as to reload a module

How long is that?

Now that you make me think about it, my own experience doesn't make the point. I use loadable modules, and I'm including in the time to reload the module the time it takes to generate it. If I have to reboot, the system is generally insmod-ready by the time I have the next iteration of the module ready. (On my ancient hardware, it's 20 seconds).

On modern hardware, I suspect I could get a kernel test system up in a few seconds. Maybe that changes the equation to where statically binding your test code into the base kernel is as fast and easy as loading it dynamically.