Re: 64-bit and N32 kernel interfaces

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>]

On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 03:01:52PM +0200, Ralf Baechle wrote:

More chainswing ...

> > As first think I want to get rid of all the historic crap we have in
> > our syscall tables for the 64-bit syscalls.  Let's start here:
> > 
> > #define __NR_syscall                    (__NR_Linux +   0)
> > 
> > Deprecated because can be implemented in userspace.
> > 
> > #define __NR_ioperm                     (__NR_Linux + 101)
> > #define __NR_iopl                       (__NR_Linux + 110)
> > #define __NR_vm86                       (__NR_Linux + 113)
> > 
> > i386 braindamage we're never going to support.  So why have it in our
> > syscall table?
> > 
> > #define __NR_unused59                   (__NR_Linux +  59)
> > #define __NR_reserved82                 (__NR_Linux +  82)
> > #define __NR_unused109                  (__NR_Linux + 109)
> > #define __NR_unused150                  (__NR_Linux + 150)
> > 
> > Unused entries.  Why keep them ...
> > 
> > #define __NR_break                      (__NR_Linux +  17)
> > #define __NR_stty                       (__NR_Linux +  31)
> > #define __NR_gtty                       (__NR_Linux +  32)
> > #define __NR_ftime                      (__NR_Linux +  35)
> > #define __NR_prof                       (__NR_Linux +  44)
> > #define __NR_signal                     (__NR_Linux +  48)
> > #define __NR_mpx                        (__NR_Linux +  56)
> > #define __NR_ulimit                     (__NR_Linux +  58)
> > #define __NR_readdir                    (__NR_Linux +  89)
> > #define __NR_profil                     (__NR_Linux +  98)
> > #define __NR_modify_ldt                 (__NR_Linux + 123)
> 
> One more for the same cathegory:
> 
> #define __NR_lock                       (__NR_Linux +  53)
> 
> > Slots that data back to day one of UNIX way before Linux was born.
> > 
> > #define __NR_socketcall                 (__NR_Linux + 102)
> > 
> > Wrapper syscall, obsoleted since quite a while in the 32-bit kernel.
> > 
> > #define __NR_idle                       (__NR_Linux + 112)
> > 
> > Internal syscall, no longer used.
> > 
> > #define __NR_ipc                        (__NR_Linux + 117)
> 
> This implies eleven new entries for:
> 
> __NR_semget
> __NR_semop
> __NR_semctl
> __NR_msgget
> __NR_msgsnd
> __NR_msgrcv
> __NR_msgctl
> __NR_shmget
> __NR_shmat
> __NR_shmdt
> __NR_shmctl
> 
> > Yet another multiplexor syscall and imho another candidate for getting
> > rid of.
> > 
> > #define __NR_oldstat                    (__NR_Linux +  18)
> > #define __NR_umount                     (__NR_Linux +  22)
> > #define __NR_oldfstat                   (__NR_Linux +  28)
> > #define __NR_oldlstat                   (__NR_Linux +  84)
> > 
> > Superseeded by newer versions.
> > 
> > #define __NR_uselib                     (__NR_Linux +  86)
> > 
> > a.out support.  Do we really want that.
> > 
> > I probably missed a few.  The primary purpose of this posting is to get a
> > discussion about the 64-bit syscall interface started.  It's still not
> > cast into stone so we can modify it as we see fit.  The entire syscall
> > interface is still open for changes, this includes all structures etc.
> > Along with a 64-bit ABI we'll also have to deciede about a N32 ABI.

llseek, pread64/pwrite64, getdent64 are no longer needed as their standard
counterparts are already 64 bit.

Modern libc doesn't use the old style signal calls __NR_sigaction,
__NR_sigsuspend, __NR_sigpending, __NR_sigprocmask.  That means
__NR_sigreturn can also go.

__NR_sgetmask and __NR_ssetmask are only capable of dealing with signal masks
of at most bitsof(long) and thus have become useless and replaced by
sigprocmask(2).

__NR_waitpid can be implemented on top of wait(2).

__NR_stime can be implemented on top of settimeofday(2).

__NR_nice can be implemented on top of getpriority / setpriority and was
a stupid interface anyway.

__NR_recv can be implemented on recvfrom(2) and __NR_send using sendfrom(2).

  Ralf