__devexit_p宏的功能

在驱动程序中，经常会在xxx_driver结构体中看看到__devexit_p(x)，譬如：

static struct spi_driver spidev_spi = {
    .driver = {  
        .name =     "spidev",       //spi_bus_type上spi_despi_devie与spi_driver匹配依赖于此名字  
        .owner =    THIS_MODULE,  
    },  
    .probe =    spidev_probe,                  
    .remove =   __devexit_p(spidev_remove),  
}; 

那么，它到底有什么作用啦？让我们先看看它的定义。

在include/linux/init.h中，我们可以找到了它的定义：

/* Functions marked as __devexit may be discarded at kernel link time, depending
   on config options.  Newer versions of binutils detect references from
   retained sections to discarded sections and flag an error.  Pointers to
   __devexit functions must use __devexit_p(function_name), the wrapper will
   insert either the function_name or NULL, depending on the config options.
 */
#if defined(MODULE) || defined(CONFIG_HOTPLUG)
#define __devexit_p(x) x
#else
#define __devexit_p(x) NULL
#endif

上面这段定义说白了就是： __devexit_p(x)是一个宏定义，根据配置选项（编译为模块 or 编译到内核）来决定函数指针是括号里面的函数，还是空函数，即模块为x，内核则为NULL。