Re: [PATCH -tip] x86: headers - fix export private data to userspace

H. Peter Anvin
2009-01-13T18:50:42Z

Harvey Harrison wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 21:34 +0300, Cyrill Gorcunov wrote:
>> Impact: cleanup
>
>> 4) setup.h - COMMAND_LINE_SIZE saved for userspace, bootloaders
>> could use it.
>
> Doesn't this need to be (at least) _COMMAND_LINE_SIZE to avoid
> polluting the namespace, not sure it can be changed though as the
> horse is already out of the barn.

No, this is not one of those cases, but it's worth explaining why.

You can introduce symbols into the general namespace if *and only if*
they are in a header file that is invoked directly by the user. In
other words, such a header file is unusable by libc, but setup.h doesn't
contain anything needed by libc in the first place.

-hpa

--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.