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SubjectRe: [patch] remove artificial software max_loop limit
Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:25:37 -0700
> "Ken Chen" <kenchen@google.com> wrote:
>
>> -module_param(max_loop, int, 0);
>> -MODULE_PARM_DESC(max_loop, "Maximum number of loop devices (1-256)");
>
> So.. this change will cause a fatal error for anyone who is presently
> using max_loop, won't it? If they're doing that within their
> initramfs/initrd/etc then things could get rather ugly for them.

I consider myself the most precious user of max_loop.

The max_loop parameter would cause a fatal error only in the case if you
modprobe loop manually, for example:

$ modprobe loop max_loop=200

But people don't usually use this, read below.

> I don't know how much of a problem this will be in practice - do
> people use max_loop much?

yes, but no as a module parameter.

People usually use max_loop as a 'kernel boot parameter' passed in
APPEND section in a boot loader (such as LILO for example), not as a
parameter for module in initrd. Why? Because it's easier; people are
lazy, people compile loop.c into kernel so they don't need to update the
loop.ko module in initrd every time a new Kernel is released.

I believe that IF you _really_ need to preserve the boot parameter, then
the parameter should _not_ be ignored, rather it should have the same
function like before - to limit the loop driver so if you use
max_loop=10 for example, it should not allow loop.c to create more than
10 loops.

And if no parameter is used at all, there will be unlimited amount of
loops. Simply clever :)

This will make it _completely_ backward-compatible, with very small code
change I guess.

Just my two cents.

Thank you for reading so far.

Tomas M
slax.org

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