Re: CSMI questions

[Erik Mouw]

On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 03:14:50PM -0800, Greg KH wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 11:16:56AM -0600, mikem wrote:
> > I'd also like an (brief) explanation of why ioctls are so bad. I've seen the 
> > reasons of them never going away, etc. But from the beginning of time (UNIX)
> > ioctls have been the preferred method of user space/kernel communication.
> 
> That's because there was no other method.  See the lkml archives for why
> ioctls are considered bad, I don't want to dredge it up again.

Here's a quote from the official syndicated kernelnewbies fortunes
file (http://www.kernelnewbies.org/kernelnewbies-fortunes.tar.gz ):

"Basically, ioctl's will _never_ be done right, because of the way people
 think about them. They are a back door. They are by design typeless and
 without rules. They are, in fact, the Microsoft of UNIX."

	- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel

For the full story, see http://lkml.org/lkml/2001/5/20/81 .


Erik

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+-- Erik Mouw -- www.harddisk-recovery.com -- +31 70 370 12 90 --
| Lab address: Delftechpark 26, 2628 XH, Delft, The Netherlands
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