public inbox for linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>
To: torvalds@osdl.org
Cc: sfr@canb.auug.org.au, akpm@osdl.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, drepper@redhat.com,
	linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] compat: fix compat_sys_openat and friends
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 21:56:44 -0800 (PST)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20060201.215644.116024082.davem@davemloft.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0602012134150.21884@g5.osdl.org>

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 21:36:40 -0800 (PST)

> Wouldn't it be _much_ better to declare the argument as a "long", since 
> some architectures (alpha, for example) may assume that 32-bit arguments 
> have been _sign_extended, not zero-extended.
> 
> Then, when the "compat_sys_xxxx()" function passes the "long" down to the 
> _real_ function (which takes an "int"), those architectures (and only 
> those architectures) that actually have assumptions about high bits will 
> have the compiler automatically do the right zero- or sign-extensions at 
> that call-site.

There is the convention that for the compat system calls all the args
will be 32-bit zero extended by the platform syscall entry code before
the C code is invoked.  This topic used to come up a lot and finally
we all decided that was the thing to do.

It's important (at least I think so :-) for all of this generic compat
code to be able to have a well defined argument environment.

Anyways, I think that's how Stephen arrived at his patch.

  reply	other threads:[~2006-02-02  5:56 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2006-02-02  5:11 [PATCH] compat: fix compat_sys_openat and friends Stephen Rothwell
2006-02-02  5:36 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-02-02  5:56   ` David S. Miller [this message]
2006-02-02  6:05     ` Stephen Rothwell
2006-02-02  6:11       ` Linus Torvalds
2006-02-02 12:01   ` Ralf Baechle

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20060201.215644.116024082.davem@davemloft.net \
    --to=davem@davemloft.net \
    --cc=akpm@osdl.org \
    --cc=drepper@redhat.com \
    --cc=linux-arch@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=sfr@canb.auug.org.au \
    --cc=torvalds@osdl.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox