Re: OFFTOPIC: e2fsprogs and +2Gb partitions

ak@muc.de
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:07:02 +0200


On Wed, Jun 17, 1998 at 01:55:14AM +0200, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> Furthermore, the whole point is that I'm doing the KERNEL. Nothing more. I
> don't _want_ to know what one million user programs expect from their
> headers. Have you ever looked into a user-level header? It's a disgusting
> maze of

The kernel exists not in a vaccuum.

>
> #if (defined(__ANSI__) && !defined(__POSIX__)) || defined(__MY_PET_POODLE__)
> ...
> #elif defined(__BSD_EXTENSIONS__)
> ...
> #elif defined(__OTHER_CRAP__) || defined(__USE_ALL)
> ..
>
> and while some people have successfully bullied me into accepting a
> limited form of that into the kernel, I just don't want to have anything
> to do with anything like this. It's not something that the kernel header
> files should care about, because the kernel developers don't care about
> it.

That is bad of course. I think it is reasonable as a rule

"if you use linux/* include files you're outside POSIX/SU/whatever and should
not expect their namespace to apply"

(I stated that in my original mail).

#ifdef __KERNEL__ should be only used to separate internal kernel functions
(internal structures that are never seen outside, prototypes etc.) from
exported stuff. Let the worrying about standard namespaces to someone else,
but allow the use of kernel includes.

-A.

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