Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Sun, 20 May 2001 12:10:59 -0700 (PDT) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: [RFD w/info-PATCH] device arguments from lookup, partion code |
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On Sun, 20 May 2001, Russell King wrote: > > On Sun, May 20, 2001 at 11:46:33AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > Nobody will expect the above to work, and everybody will agree that the > > above is a BUG if the read() call will actually follow the pointer. > > I didn't say anything about read(). I said write(). Obviously it > wouldn't work for read()!
No, but the point is, everybody _would_ consider it a bug if a low-level driver "write()" did anything but touched the explicit buffer.
Code like that would not pass through anybody's yuck-o-meter. People would point fingers and say "That is not a legal write() function". Anybody who tried to make write() follow pointers would be laughed at as a stupid git.
Anybody who makes "ioctl()" do the same is just following years of standard practice, and the yuck-o-meter doesn't even register.
THAT is the importance of psychology.
Technology is meaningless. What matters is how people _think_ of it.
Linus
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