Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:33:32 -0400 | From | Bill Davidsen <> | Subject | Re: [patch] remove artificial software max_loop limit |
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Jan Engelhardt wrote: > On Apr 1 2007 11:10, Ken Chen wrote: >> On 4/1/07, Tomas M <tomas@slax.org> wrote: >> >>> I believe that IF you _really_ need to preserve the max_loop module >>> parameter, then the parameter should _not_ be ignored, rather it >>> should have the same function like before - to limit the loop driver >>> so if you use max_loop=10 for example, it should not allow loop.c to >>> create more than 10 loops. >> Blame on the dual meaning of max_loop that it uses currently: to >> initialize a set of loop devices and as a side effect, it also sets >> the upper limit. People are complaining about the former constrain, >> isn't it? Does anyone uses the 2nd meaning of upper limit? > > Who cares if the user specifies max_loop=8 but still is able to open up > /dev/loop8, loop9, etc.? max_loop=X basically meant (at least to me) > "have at least X" loops ready. > You have just come up with a really good reason not to do unlimited loops. With the current limit people can count on a script mounting files, or similar, to neither loop for a VERY long time or to eat their memory. Whatever you think of programs without limit checking, this falls in the range of expecting an unsigned char to have a certain upper bound, and argues that the default limit should be the current limit and that setting a lower bound should work as a real and enforced limit.
If a new capability is being added, and I think it's a great one, then people using the capability should be the ones explicitly doing something different. Plauger's law of least astonishment.
-- Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from the machinations of the wicked." - from Slashdot - 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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