Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 17 Mar 2006 02:11:55 +0100 (MET) | From | "Michael Kerrisk" <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] unshare: Cleanup up the sys unshare interfac e before we are committed. |
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Linus,
> On Fri, 17 Mar 2006, Michael Kerrisk wrote: > > > > > > My personal opinion is that having a different set of flags is more > > > confusing > > > > How is it confusing? And who is it confusing for? > > It's confusing because > - it's just more flags to keep track of
Agreed, there is a "confusion cost" to that.
> - it's all the same issues that clone() has
At the moment, but possibly not in the future (if one day usnhare() needs a flag that has no analogue in clone()).
> - it's an opportunity for future incoherence
Not sure what future incoherence you mean here. Anyway, we inject some incoherence *now* (some unshare() flags reverse their clone() counterparts, one does not).
> > It will potentially require kernel developers to think for just > > a moment about what is going on. But why care about them -- > > they don't have to *use* this interface; userland programmers do. > > All the confusion is equally a userland issue, don't try to just enforce > your own opinions as somehow being "facts" by repeating them over > and over again.
I'm not trying to do that. I've repeated my statements because I haven't seen any clear counterarguments. I have a particular opinion about what constitutes confusion, and it comes from a perspective that focuses on the kernel-userland interface. I agree that it does create some "confusion cost" for userland programmers to add new flags. But _in my opinion_ that cost is outweighed by the greater "confusion costs" that I have described. Eric seemed to agree. Unfortunately for my argument, you and Janak don't ;-).
Cheers,
Michael
-- Michael Kerrisk maintainer of Linux man pages Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7
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