Re: f_owner_ex vs. POSIX

Florian Weimer
2019-09-02T13:44:57Z

* Michael Kerrisk:

> I do not know what the rationale was for the addition of the 'enum',
> and it wouldn't surprise me if there was no public discussion about
> it. The use of an 'enum' strikes me as a slightly odd decision (given
> that the kernel uses 'int') but, related to your point below, there
> is precedent in, for example, the use of an 'enum' for 'idtype_t' in
> waitid() inside glibc, while the kernel type for the argument in
> the underlying system call is 'int'.

There is also the issue of -fshort-enum. Some people probably expect
that they can use that option and still use glibc headers.

I do not have any inside knowledge why things are like they are.
Presumably we can switch the type member to int.

Thanks,
Florian