A SUSE engineer has proposed a series of patches for inclusion in the linux-next branch, on which the functionality of Linux kernel 7.1 is based, removing the ability to build the IPv6 stack as a kernel module. The reasons given include the desire to eliminate complications and simplify maintenance. The ability to build IPv6 as a module remains in the kernel mainly for historical reasons and is not practically used in modern distributions (IPv6 is either compiled into the kernel or completely disabled).
The essence of the problem is that when the kernel supports the building of IPv6 as a kernel module (CONFIG_IPV6=m), many subsystems are forced to add unnecessary handlers in case the IPv6 module is unloaded. Therefore, it is proposed to limit the options for embedding IPv6 into the kernel (CONFIG_IPV6=y) and fully disabling IPv6 (CONFIG_IPV6=n), which will relieve the network subsystem, BPF, Netfilter, and some drivers from needing to handle module unloading.
Forrás: opennet.ru
