Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 30 Apr 2006 19:38:36 +1000 | From | Peter Chubb <> | Subject | Re: Simple header cleanups |
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>>>>> "Linus" == Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:
Linus> On Thu, 27 Apr 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote: >> A definition of the kernel <-> userspace ABI is required.
Linus> This is one reason why we shouldn't even _plan_ on having Linus> header files that can just be _directly_ used by the C Linus> libraries etc, even if it's just a "small" kernel ABI header.
I think I disagree with you here. It should be possible to have Linux kernel abi header files that are directly usable, and shared between kernel and user space, precisely because they are _Linux_ kernel ABI headers, not POSIX, not SUS, not XOPEN_SOURCE. The consumers of the header files shouldn't expect to be able necessarily to do #include <stdio.h> $include <linux/kabi/xxx.h> and have it work (although I think we should avoid breaking things if it's easy to do so), because that's mixing interface definitions -- libc vs raw Linux.
Originally (back in edition 6 days) /usr/include/sys was precisely the kind of thing that's being proposed, in that it contained system call numbers, and the shapes of structures shared between user and kernel space. Over time, that directory became a compatibility layer for POSIX-like systems, and has been implemented in terms of whatever the OS provides. So now we need something new.
-- Dr Peter Chubb http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au ERTOS within National ICT Australia - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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