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+=================
+Symbol Namespaces
+=================
+
+The following document describes how to use Symbol Namespaces to structure the
+export surface of in-kernel symbols exported through the family of
+EXPORT_SYMBOL() macros.
+
+.. Table of Contents
+
+	=== 1 Introduction
+	=== 2 How to define Symbol Namespaces
+	   --- 2.1 Using the EXPORT_SYMBOL macros
+	   --- 2.2 Using the DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE define
+	=== 3 How to use Symbols exported in Namespaces
+	=== 4 Loading Modules that use namespaced Symbols
+	=== 5 Automatically creating MODULE_IMPORT_NS statements
+
+1. Introduction
+===============
+
+Symbol Namespaces have been introduced as a means to structure the export
+surface of the in-kernel API. It allows subsystem maintainers to partition
+their exported symbols into separate namespaces. That is useful for
+documentation purposes (think of the SUBSYSTEM_DEBUG namespace) as well as for
+limiting the availability of a set of symbols for use in other parts of the
+kernel. As of today, modules that make use of symbols exported into namespaces,
+are required to import the namespace. Otherwise the kernel will, depending on
+its configuration, reject loading the module or warn about a missing import.
+
+2. How to define Symbol Namespaces
+==================================
+
+Symbols can be exported into namespace using different methods. All of them are
+changing the way EXPORT_SYMBOL and friends are instrumented to create ksymtab
+entries.
+
+2.1 Using the EXPORT_SYMBOL macros
+==================================
+
+In addition to the macros EXPORT_SYMBOL() and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(), that allow
+exporting of kernel symbols to the kernel symbol table, variants of these are
+available to export symbols into a certain namespace: EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS() and
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS_GPL(). They take one additional argument: the namespace.
+Please note that due to macro expansion that argument needs to be a
+preprocessor symbol. E.g. to export the symbol ``usb_stor_suspend`` into the
+namespace ``USB_STORAGE``, use::
+
+	EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS(usb_stor_suspend, USB_STORAGE);
+
+The corresponding ksymtab entry struct ``kernel_symbol`` will have the member
+``namespace`` set accordingly. A symbol that is exported without a namespace will
+refer to ``NULL``. There is no default namespace if none is defined. ``modpost``
+and kernel/module/main.c make use the namespace at build time or module load
+time, respectively.
+
+2.2 Using the DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE define
+=============================================
+
+Defining namespaces for all symbols of a subsystem can be very verbose and may
+become hard to maintain. Therefore a default define (DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE)
+is been provided, that, if set, will become the default for all EXPORT_SYMBOL()
+and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() macro expansions that do not specify a namespace.
+
+There are multiple ways of specifying this define and it depends on the
+subsystem and the maintainer's preference, which one to use. The first option
+is to define the default namespace in the ``Makefile`` of the subsystem. E.g. to
+export all symbols defined in usb-common into the namespace USB_COMMON, add a
+line like this to drivers/usb/common/Makefile::
+
+	ccflags-y += -DDEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE=USB_COMMON
+
+That will affect all EXPORT_SYMBOL() and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() statements. A
+symbol exported with EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS() while this definition is present, will
+still be exported into the namespace that is passed as the namespace argument
+as this argument has preference over a default symbol namespace.
+
+A second option to define the default namespace is directly in the compilation
+unit as preprocessor statement. The above example would then read::
+
+	#undef  DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE
+	#define DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE USB_COMMON
+
+within the corresponding compilation unit before any EXPORT_SYMBOL macro is
+used.
+
+3. How to use Symbols exported in Namespaces
+============================================
+
+In order to use symbols that are exported into namespaces, kernel modules need
+to explicitly import these namespaces. Otherwise the kernel might reject to
+load the module. The module code is required to use the macro MODULE_IMPORT_NS
+for the namespaces it uses symbols from. E.g. a module using the
+usb_stor_suspend symbol from above, needs to import the namespace USB_STORAGE
+using a statement like::
+
+	MODULE_IMPORT_NS(USB_STORAGE);
+
+This will create a ``modinfo`` tag in the module for each imported namespace.
+This has the side effect, that the imported namespaces of a module can be
+inspected with modinfo::
+
+	$ modinfo drivers/usb/storage/ums-karma.ko
+	[...]
+	import_ns:      USB_STORAGE
+	[...]
+
+
+It is advisable to add the MODULE_IMPORT_NS() statement close to other module
+metadata definitions like MODULE_AUTHOR() or MODULE_LICENSE(). Refer to section
+5. for a way to create missing import statements automatically.
+
+4. Loading Modules that use namespaced Symbols
+==============================================
+
+At module loading time (e.g. ``insmod``), the kernel will check each symbol
+referenced from the module for its availability and whether the namespace it
+might be exported to has been imported by the module. The default behaviour of
+the kernel is to reject loading modules that don't specify sufficient imports.
+An error will be logged and loading will be failed with EINVAL. In order to
+allow loading of modules that don't satisfy this precondition, a configuration
+option is available: Setting MODULE_ALLOW_MISSING_NAMESPACE_IMPORTS=y will
+enable loading regardless, but will emit a warning.
+
+5. Automatically creating MODULE_IMPORT_NS statements
+=====================================================
+
+Missing namespaces imports can easily be detected at build time. In fact,
+modpost will emit a warning if a module uses a symbol from a namespace
+without importing it.
+MODULE_IMPORT_NS() statements will usually be added at a definite location
+(along with other module meta data). To make the life of module authors (and
+subsystem maintainers) easier, a script and make target is available to fixup
+missing imports. Fixing missing imports can be done with::
+
+	$ make nsdeps
+
+A typical scenario for module authors would be::
+
+	- write code that depends on a symbol from a not imported namespace
+	- ``make``
+	- notice the warning of modpost telling about a missing import
+	- run ``make nsdeps`` to add the import to the correct code location
+
+For subsystem maintainers introducing a namespace, the steps are very similar.
+Again, ``make nsdeps`` will eventually add the missing namespace imports for
+in-tree modules::
+
+	- move or add symbols to a namespace (e.g. with EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS())
+	- ``make`` (preferably with an allmodconfig to cover all in-kernel
+	  modules)
+	- notice the warning of modpost telling about a missing import
+	- run ``make nsdeps`` to add the import to the correct code location
+
+You can also run nsdeps for external module builds. A typical usage is::
+
+	$ make -C <path_to_kernel_src> M=$PWD nsdeps