Re: [XEN PATCH v7 05/51] x86/mm: avoid building multiple .o from a single .c file

[Ian Jackson <iwj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony PERARD writes ("Re: [XEN PATCH v7 05/51] x86/mm: avoid building 
multiple .o from a single .c file"):
> On Tue, Sep 07, 2021 at 08:14:14AM +0200, Jan Beulich wrote:
> > Hmm, when replying to 00/51 I didn't recall I gave an R-b for this one
> > already. I'd like to restrict it some: It should be taken to stand for
> > the technical correctness of the change. Nevertheless I'm not really
> > happy with the introduction of the various tiny source files. I've
> > meanwhile been wondering: Can't these be generated (in the build tree,
> > as soon as that's possible to be separate) rather than getting put in
> > the repo?
> 
> Do we really need to generated those never to be change tiny source
> file? Do we really need to make the build system a lot more complicated?

I'm not an x86 maintainer, but my 2p anyway:

I think the handful of tiny source files is probably better than some
contraption in the build system.  Much less risk of something funny
and confusing going on.

We could reduce the number of copies of the same text by making the
copies of guest_walk*.c in hap/ be symlinks to ../guest_walk*.c.

> Can't we commit this patch as is? What kind of issue is there with those
> tiny source files? Should we add a warning in those tiny source files,
> something like "No modification of this file allowed, it's part of the
> build system." ?

I don't think we need any such warning.  No-one is going to take that
tiny file and try to edit it to put functionality in it, and if they
do it will be spotted on review.

Thanks,
Ian.