Re: [PATCH 6/13] maps: Move the page walker code to lib/

Matt Mackall
2007-04-04T22:01:00Z

On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 03:50:56PM +1000, Nick Piggin wrote:
> Matt Mackall wrote:
> >On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 01:51:37PM +1000, Nick Piggin wrote:
> >
> >>Matt Mackall wrote:
> >>
> >>>Move the page walker code to lib/
> >>>
> >>>This lets it get shared outside of proc/ and linked in only when
> >>>needed.
> >>
> >>I think it would be better in mm/.
> >
> >
> >I originally was looking at putting it in mm/memory.c and possibly
>
> Just put it in its own file in mm/ rather than its own file in lib.
> lib should be for almost-standalone stuff, IMO (ie. only using basic
> kernel functionality).

Arguably that's what lib/ should be for, but it's currently largely
used to avoid linking in unused code without adding more hair to
Kconfig. Which is what I'm trying to do here.

> Apart from these users outside mm/, I don't see much point in converting
> things over. The page table walking API we have now is neat and simple.
> It takes a few lines of code, but is it a big problem?

I don't think it really qualifies as either neat or simple. It may be
about as neat as walking a heterogenous tree with an inconsistent
naming scheme can be, but it's still a headache. A maze of twisty
little passages, all slightly different.

--
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.