Why is caddr_t used in quotactl(2)?

[Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>]

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[looping libc-help@]

Hi all,

On 2026-05-18T17:05:59+0200, Jan Kara wrote:
> Hi Alejandro!
> 
> On Mon 18-05-26 14:51:45, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > Also, I wonder why caddr_t was used at all, instead of void*.  It seems
> > to unnecessarily require a cast, which could have been avoided with
> > void*.  In quotactl_fd(), since we need to use syscall(2), which is
> > variadic, I'll document the correct pointer types, instead of caddr_t*.
> 
> For this I don't have a good answer. It was like that for ages... I guess
> you can ask glibc guys - the kernel uses void * but glibc uses caddr_t.

Does anyone know why glibc uses caddr_t in quotactl(2)?  It seems to me
that void* would be obviously better, by not needing a cast.

-  Why was it added in the first place, given the kernel uses void*
   internally?

-  Can we change it now to be void*?


Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>

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