Re: linux 4.6 FTBFS on alpha

[Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>]

On 05.05.2016 03:17, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> There's a silly type error in an alpha-specific module that now breaks
> the build:
> 
> /«PKGBUILDDIR»/fs/binfmt_em86.c: In function 'load_em86':
> /«PKGBUILDDIR»/fs/binfmt_em86.c:73:35: error: passing argument 2 of 'copy_strings_kernel' from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
>    retval = copy_strings_kernel(1, &i_arg, bprm);
>                                    ^
> In file included from /«PKGBUILDDIR»/fs/binfmt_em86.c:14:0:
> /«PKGBUILDDIR»/include/linux/binfmts.h:116:12: note: expected 'const char * const*' but argument is of type 'char **'
>  extern int copy_strings_kernel(int argc, const char *const *argv,
>             ^
> /«PKGBUILDDIR»/fs/binfmt_em86.c:77:34: error: passing argument 2 of 'copy_strings_kernel' from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
>   retval = copy_strings_kernel(1, &i_name, bprm);
>                                   ^
> In file included from /«PKGBUILDDIR»/fs/binfmt_em86.c:14:0:
> /«PKGBUILDDIR»/include/linux/binfmts.h:116:12: note: expected 'const char * const*' but argument is of type 'char **'
>  extern int copy_strings_kernel(int argc, const char *const *argv,
>             ^
> 
> The conversion is safe but the C standard says it requires a cast.
> This can easily be fixed by adding the cast, but I also wonder why we
> still build this module.  Even the Kconfig text says it's redundant
> with binfmt_misc.  What do you think?

I don't know if it being used, but it seems that systemd takes care 
of autoloading binfmt_misc automatically, so IMHO I agree that it should
be safe to simply disable binfmt_em86 from the debian alpha kernel.

Question to the alpha kernel maintainers: Maybe binfmt_em86 
should simply be dropped from the kernel source completely?  

Helge