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SubjectRe: Bogus serialP.h patch?


On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote:
>
> If that's all they really need out of serialP.h, then perhaps that 10
> lines of code should just be included into that driver's .c file instead
> of put in a public header file. I'm *really* nervous about that, since
> the whole point of serial.h versus serialP.h is to keep the documented
> public interfaces separate from the internal private implementation
> types and #define's.

Actually, I've always hated the notion of "public" versus "private", and I
think "serialP.h" is just a band-aid around a real problem which is that
there is quite a lot of incestuous knowledge about the tty layer and
serial devices all over the place.

First off, if it's really a _private_ header file, then it shouldn't be in
<linux/serialP.h> in the first place. It should be in drivers/char, and
you should use #include "16550.h" to make it clear that (a) it's not about
"serial devices", it's about a specific _class_ of serial devices and (b)
it's really just private to a specific driver (or two similar drivers),
and not a generic Linux header file.

Btw, calling the dang thing "16550.h" may be technically inaccurate (it
obviously is used a lot more chips than the 16550), but I think it is
_psychologically_ a lot closer to what you seem to have in mind for the
use. It would tell people what the file is about - which the current name
does not at all. The current name probably makes most people think that
the programmer was spastic and wrote an extra 'P' by mistake.

But I don't care all that much. I think that either we should do the
one-liner to make existing things happy as things stand (which is
basically what Alan did), or we should just fix the thing _right_, in
which case the "serialP.h" file goes away - moved or integrated, I don't
much think there is all that much of a difference (the integration should
be much more complete, with a "serial device layer" kind of support
structure etc).

Linus


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