Since 8b41fc4454 ("kbuild: create modules.builtin without
Makefile.modbuiltin or tristate.conf"), MODULE_LICENSE declarations are
used to identify modules. As a consequence, MODULE_LICENSE in non-modules
causes modprobe to misidentify the object file as a module when it is not,
and modprobe might succeed rather than failing with a suitable error
message.
For tristate modules that can be either built-in or loaded at runtime,
modprobe succeeds in both cases:
# modprobe ext4
[exit status zero if CONFIG_EXT4_FS=y or =m]
For boolean modules like the Standard Hot Plug Controller driver (shpchp)
that cannot be loaded at runtime, modprobe should always fail like this:
# modprobe shpchp
modprobe: FATAL: Module shpchp not found in directory /lib/modules/...
[exit status non-zero regardless of CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_SHPC]
but prior to this commit, shpchp_core.c contained MODULE_LICENSE, so
"modprobe shpchp" silently succeeded when it should have failed.
Remove MODULE_LICENSE in files that cannot be built as modules.
[bhelgaas: commit log, squash]
Suggested-by: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230216152410.4312-1-nick.alcock@oracle.com/
Signed-off-by: Nick Alcock <nick.alcock@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Manivannan Sadhasivam <manivannan.sadhasivam@linaro.org>
Cc: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Cc: Hitomi Hasegawa <hasegawa-hitomi@fujitsu.com>
Cc: Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>
Cc: Lorenzo Pieralisi <lpieralisi@kernel.org>
f98954b293