I do not plan to submit this patch to Linus/Marcelo.

This patch applies an obvious technique to the kernel:  increase the
amount of code compiled in a single compilation unit, to increase the
overall knowledge the compiler has of the code, to allow for better
optimization and dead code removal.  KDE does this, with definite
success, though they definitely are not the first to do this.

Simply, all ext2 files are #include'd into a single file, ext2_all.c,
and all functions and data structures are declared static.

This technique can be used in the kernel, userspace applications, and
userspace libraries to decrease icache footprint and overall size of
your applications.

Results from 2.4.17-pre2 plus the attached patch:  1135 bytes saved in
vmlinux, simply from making all the functions static.
(*.orig is prior to my patch.  kernel is P2 SMP-based)
> [jgarzik@rum linux-e2all]$ ls -l vmlinux* arch/i386/boot/bzImage*
> -rw-r--r--    1 jgarzik  jgarzik   1030259 Dec  2 06:18 arch/i386/boot/bzImage
> -rw-r--r--    1 jgarzik  jgarzik   1030263 Dec  2 06:04 arch/i386/boot/bzImage.orig
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 jgarzik  jgarzik   2814631 Dec  2 06:18 vmlinux*
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 jgarzik  jgarzik   2815766 Dec  2 06:04 vmlinux.orig*

I can only imagine the large amount of space savings if large drivers
like ACPI or reiserfs or aic7xxx use this technique.

Maybe a global CONFIG_FINAL flag could enable *_all.c compilation for
various drivers and subsystems.  Functions not unconditionally static
would be marked KSTATIC.  [obviously the size of the compilation unit
must not be larger than a single driver or subsystem, due to potential
namespace collisions]

-- 
Jeff Garzik      | Only so many songs can be sung
Building 1024    | with two lips, two lungs, and one tongue.
MandrakeSoft     |         - nomeansno