lkml.org 
[lkml]   [1998]   [Jun]   [16]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
SubjectRe: OFFTOPIC: e2fsprogs and +2Gb partitions
From
Date
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> writes:
> > > But the point is that I DO NOT WANT TO. It is too stifling. I'm more than
> > > happy to maintain binary compatibility backwards (within reason - even
> > > that is occasionally broken, especially for "system binaries" like
> > > "ifconfig" etc). But I refuse to maintain that on a source level, because
> > > I see absolutely _no_ positive feedback from it.
> >
> > How is the scheme I'm suggesting stifling?
>
> Because exporting _anything_ means:
> - I have to use the ridiculous naming scheme. I don't want to. I want to
> call my constants "HZ" if I want to, and when somebody complains that
> it is against the ANSI C standard to have such a defince, I tell them
> to go away and not bother me.
> - I need to be careful about what else I export. I'd better not export
> any kernel stuff, because the thing that expects to have
> __KERNEL_AF_UNIX exported, does _not_ want to have "struct sk_buff *"
> exported.

Most of this can be simply solved by a few #ifdef __KERNEL__. Is that really
that difficult? Most of the interesting features of Linux 2.1 are only
available in glibc 2.1 (and some are even not, e.g. netlink), and maintaining
the kernel headers in all applications too is just a major PITA.

The idea is:

All internal kernel stuff (prototypes, internal structures etc.) inside
#ifdef __KERNEL__

Everything else should be 'exported kernel API'

I don't think it is required that these files obey the POSIX/ANSI-C namespace
rules, it should just be possible to include them from userspace for Linux
specific modules.

If the people want POSIX/Unix95 compliance they should use glibc includes,
if they need Linux specific functions (and yes, that is sometimes needed)
they should be able to include (include, not copy!) kernel includes and deal
with the namespace issues themself (because they're outside POSIX/SU now
anyways)

-Andi

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:43    [W:0.135 / U:0.300 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site