01 Oct, 2006

1 commit

  • Make it possible to disable the block layer. Not all embedded devices require
    it, some can make do with just JFFS2, NFS, ramfs, etc - none of which require
    the block layer to be present.

    This patch does the following:

    (*) Introduces CONFIG_BLOCK to disable the block layer, buffering and blockdev
    support.

    (*) Adds dependencies on CONFIG_BLOCK to any configuration item that controls
    an item that uses the block layer. This includes:

    (*) Block I/O tracing.

    (*) Disk partition code.

    (*) All filesystems that are block based, eg: Ext3, ReiserFS, ISOFS.

    (*) The SCSI layer. As far as I can tell, even SCSI chardevs use the
    block layer to do scheduling. Some drivers that use SCSI facilities -
    such as USB storage - end up disabled indirectly from this.

    (*) Various block-based device drivers, such as IDE and the old CDROM
    drivers.

    (*) MTD blockdev handling and FTL.

    (*) JFFS - which uses set_bdev_super(), something it could avoid doing by
    taking a leaf out of JFFS2's book.

    (*) Makes most of the contents of linux/blkdev.h, linux/buffer_head.h and
    linux/elevator.h contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK being set. sector_div() is,
    however, still used in places, and so is still available.

    (*) Also made contingent are the contents of linux/mpage.h, linux/genhd.h and
    parts of linux/fs.h.

    (*) Makes a number of files in fs/ contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

    (*) Makes mm/bounce.c (bounce buffering) contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

    (*) set_page_dirty() doesn't call __set_page_dirty_buffers() if CONFIG_BLOCK
    is not enabled.

    (*) fs/no-block.c is created to hold out-of-line stubs and things that are
    required when CONFIG_BLOCK is not set:

    (*) Default blockdev file operations (to give error ENODEV on opening).

    (*) Makes some /proc changes:

    (*) /proc/devices does not list any blockdevs.

    (*) /proc/diskstats and /proc/partitions are contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

    (*) Makes some compat ioctl handling contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

    (*) If CONFIG_BLOCK is not defined, makes sys_quotactl() return -ENODEV if
    given command other than Q_SYNC or if a special device is specified.

    (*) In init/do_mounts.c, no reference is made to the blockdev routines if
    CONFIG_BLOCK is not defined. This does not prohibit NFS roots or JFFS2.

    (*) The bdflush, ioprio_set and ioprio_get syscalls can now be absent (return
    error ENOSYS by way of cond_syscall if so).

    (*) The seclvl_bd_claim() and seclvl_bd_release() security calls do nothing if
    CONFIG_BLOCK is not set, since they can't then happen.

    Signed-Off-By: David Howells
    Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

    David Howells