Re: [patch] 2.6.1-mm5 compile do not use shared extable code for

Paul Mackerras
2004-01-27T23:49:10Z

David Mosberger writes:

> Paul> Also, I don't think there is enough code there to be worth the
> Paul> bother of trying to abstract the generic routine so you can
> Paul> plug in different compare and move-element routines. The
> Paul> whole sort routine is only 16 lines of code, after all. Why
> Paul> not just have an ia64-specific version of sort_extable?
> Paul> That's what I thought you would do.
>
> Because the Alpha needs exactly the same code.

I really don't like the uglification of lib/extable.c. I think it is
much better to have ~20 lines of code in each of arch/ia64/mm and
arch/alpha/mm than to try to generalize lib/extable.c. Once you add
all the extra definitions you need for your version, I doubt that the
overall savings would be more than a dozen lines or so.

The point is that with lib/extable.c as it is, you can look at one
page of code, and everything you need to understand that code is
there. With your change, I have to hunt around to check what the
macros are doing on each arch, and flip backwards and forwards to
check side effects, calling environment etc. With an ia64-specific
extable.c, you should be able to look at one page of code there and
see that the ia64 version is also correct.

Paul.