Re: 32 bit user space compatibility

From: One Thousand Gnomes
Date: Tue Oct 28 2014 - 18:34:54 EST


On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:25:08 +0000
"Skidanov, Alexey" <Alexey.Skidanov@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Running 32 bit user space needs some work to be done with ioctls. I understand that there are two options to implement:
> 1. Use only fixed size types. Pad IOCTLS params to multiple of 64 bits - simple; don't know if it covers all compatibility issues;
> 2. 32 bit compatibility layer (through compat_ioctl, just like many drivers in kernel implement) - just a little bit simple code with some translations; really covers all issues;
>
> Which one is preferred by kernel community?

You shouldn't need to pad paramters in most cases as platform alignment
rules are usually sane for 32 and 64bit. #1 is preferred. #2 exists
because 64bit appeared after Linux was designed so it wasn't designed in
from day one.
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