Re: [linux-lvm] Re: IBM to release LVM Technology to the Linux

[Dale Kemp <dale@inet.net.nz>]

> The generic VFS code just never looks into the union,it is certainly
> abstractly used. Putting it into the union is just an performance optimization
> to make it use one allocation less in critical paths. File systems that
> do not want to change the source files are free to use the generic_ip
> pointer instead and let it point to a private structure.
>
> -Andi (who prefers Linux VFS over ``8.3 macro hell'' Sun/BSD derived VFS)

Yes, I see its abstractly used I guess OO programmers don't like the
whole concept of the union data structure, but for kernel programming,
device drivers etc it can make things go a bit quicker, and save space.

I hear from Andreas that design work is currently going on for VFS for
kernels 2.5/2.6. That's one of those things about Linux if it doesn't
exist, or needs improving, it's probably already being worked on -
relentless improvement.

-- Dale.