From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk
Subject: Re: fcntl method for file_operations
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 20:31:02 +0000
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Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@debian.org>,
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To: Trond Myklebust <trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no>
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On Thu, Mar 25, 2004 at 03:15:58PM -0500, Trond Myklebust wrote:
> I can see his point: fcntl() is second only to ioctl() when it comes to
> interface design. If you want to provide methods/callbacks for each and
> every overloaded subcase, then your "struct file_operations" can quickly
> turn ugly.

And for that very reason we don't _want_ to make it easy to add new
piles of vomit into fcntl().  ioctl() is bad enough; until now fcntl()
was somewhat limited, but typeless method will immediately open the
floodgates.

IOW, my vote is strongly against ->fcntl() - the last thing we need
is yet another multiplexor available to Joe Random Driver-Monkey.