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In the 2.6.37 kernel the function invalidate_inodes() is no longer exported for use by modules. This memory management functionality is needed to invalidate the inodes attached to a super block without unmounting the filesystem. Because this function still exists in the kernel and the prototype is available is a common header all we strictly need is the symbol address. The address is obtained using spl_kallsyms_lookup_name() and assigned to the variable invalidate_inodes_fn. Then a #define is used to replace all instances of invalidate_inodes() with a call to the acquired address. All the complexity is hidden behind HAVE_INVALIDATE_INODES and invalidate_inodes() can be used as usual. Long term we should try to get this, or another, interface made available to modules again.
The Solaris Porting Layer (SPL) is a Linux kernel module which provides many of the Solaris kernel APIs. This shim layer makes it possible to run Solaris kernel code in the Linux kernel with relatively minimal modification. This can be particularly useful when you want to track upstream Solaris development closely and don’t want the overhead of maintaining a large patch which converts Solaris primitives to Linux primitives.
To build packages for your distribution:
$ ./configure
$ make pkg
Full documentation for building, configuring, and using the SPL can be found at: http://zfsonlinux.org