From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 21 Jun 2001 21:30:02 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 21 Jun 2001 21:29:52 -0400 Received: from penguin.e-mind.com ([195.223.140.120]:62293 "EHLO penguin.e-mind.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Thu, 21 Jun 2001 21:29:37 -0400 Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 03:29:18 +0200 From: Andrea Arcangeli To: "Eric S. Raymond" Cc: torvalds@transmeta.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Controversy over dynamic linking -- how to end the panic Message-ID: <20010622032918.H707@athlon.random> In-Reply-To: <200106211814.f5LIEgK04880@snark.thyrsus.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200106211814.f5LIEgK04880@snark.thyrsus.com>; from esr@snark.thyrsus.com on Thu, Jun 21, 2001 at 02:14:42PM -0400 X-GnuPG-Key-URL: http://e-mind.com/~andrea/aa.gnupg.asc X-PGP-Key-URL: http://e-mind.com/~andrea/aa.asc Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > 1. Userland programs which request kernel services via normal system ^^^^^^ > calls *are not* to be considered derivative works of the kernel. Please, at least don't say "normal" or it will be non obvious that it is ok for the vsyscalls too (which aren't *that* normal system calls). I'd rather use "via any kind of official system call (vsyscalls included)". Otherwise I guess a malicious could try to say that the vsyscalls are basically dynamically linking the userspace with the kernel (dynamically linking GPL code in the kernel to whatever non GPL userspace). vsyscalls cannot give any advantage to the dark side (satellite is flooding me with the star wars movies sorry ;) anything you can do with a vsyscall, you can do with a real syscall too, just slower. They can only improve performance when it is possible to provide the same functionality without entering/exiting kernel. So nobody sane could ever complain about the vsyscalls but since you're writing that stuff it worth to make it explicit I think ;). Thanks, Andrea