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SubjectRe: Linux's future: //posix/ipc, //root and so on ?
In <E12PsxN-0004LZ-00@the-village.bc.nu> Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk) wrote:
>> mount anything at all, easy change of root: just umount //root and mount
>> other thing there. And POSIX agrees that //root or //proc CAN be special
>> so all is correct. So just kernel changes are needed. Right ? Not quite:

AC> Millions of apps rely on // working.

Are you sure ? Why ? Till there no warning we can not check it.

>> it's better to add kernel warning NOW. Perhaps configurable so it can be
>> disabled (not in compile time, but in run-time). This way at least EACH AND
>> EVERY Linux vendor will be aware about problem. What do you think ?

AC> If Linus made // special in the kernel we'd have to make it unspecial again
AC> in glibc 8(.

You can not :-)) It'll be slow, error-prone and will have security iplications
(why ? think about symlinks :-)

AC> It also breaks the flexibility of mounting we have now. Why is it
AC> //ipc - what does //ipc have to do with ipc in other languages, why
AC> can't I mount it where I want it ?

POSIX IPC implementation needed finename, visible from userspace. If you
have no knowleadge about where "IPC filesystem" is mounted you can not
construct such name. With //ipc //ipc/bla-bla-bla will be ALWAYS
//ipc/bla-bla-bla -- no matter what and when. The same goes for //proc and
so on. Of course we can always say: if you are mounting procfs not in /proc
and ipcfs not in /ipc then blame yourself. But then why it should be done
from userspace if there are no choice ?

AC> We have a nice unix VFS abstraction. Not using it is just ugly. Things like
AC> mounting /ipc can be handled in startup space quite easily.

Then we'll end up with kludges like devpts handling in glibc :-((




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