linux: 'CONFIG_UNIX' is set to module, should be in kernel?

[thomas]

Is there a good reason to have the socket support as a module? I can not imagine one.

from the config help...

CONFIG_UNIX:

If you say Y here, you will include support for Unix domain sockets;
[...] Unless you are working on
an embedded system or something similar, you therefore definitely
want to say Y here.

[...] Note that several important services won't work
correctly if you say M here and then neglect to load the module.

[donald]

It's been like this since the very first checkin of config-mpi, so the reasoning is not in any commit.
Generally speaking, we once said, that we have a tendency to set everything to "M" thats not required to mount the root disk. The idea was, that this might open the option to replace or disable buggy code in a running system by replacing or removing the module. It might be difficult to unload a module with many user, though. I'm not sure if this could be done for UNIX - if you have to kill 99% of your userspace you could as well reboot. But even with reboot a replacement of a single module might be easier/faster than a rebuild of the whole kernel+nvidia.

In short: M has more flexibility than Y. That we even use this flexibility for UNIX, can be doubted.

Is there a reason to have anything Y which could be M? Of course, a module has more bookkeeping overhead, but is the loading time or the extra memory relevant? Does it affect runtime performance once loaded?

From 6.5 on, CONFIG_UNIX is no longer tristate anyway and has to be set to Y.

[thomas]

Well, my question was about the UNIX module, not modules in general. Based on the thought, that you may boot a rudimentary but working linux environment w/o modules.

[donald]

When you have access to the system disk you have access to the modules. If you don't have access to the system disk, you don't even have a shell, so what kind of working Linux environment is that?

Are you thinking about your VM with Mariux kernel and Userspace from some other distro?

Anyway, I don't mind and its changing for 6.5 anyway. Change it, if you want.