Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] input: Deprecate real timestamps beyond year 2106

Deepa Dinamani
2016-10-27T22:25:15Z

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 7:56 PM, Peter Hutterer
<peter.hutterer@who-t.net> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 08:27:32PM -0700, Deepa Dinamani wrote:
>> struct timeval is not y2038 safe.
>> All usage of timeval in the kernel will be replaced by
>> y2038 safe structures.
>>
>> struct input_event maintains time for each input event.
>> Real time timestamps are not ideal for input as this
>> time can go backwards as noted in the patch a80b83b7b8
>> by John Stultz. Hence, having the input_event.time fields
>> only big enough for monotonic and boot times are
>> sufficient.
>>
>> Leave the original input_event as is. This is to maintain
>> backward compatibility with existing userspace interfaces
>> that use input_event.
>> Introduce a new replacement struct raw_input_event.
>
> general comment here - please don't name it "raw_input_event".
> First, when you grep for input_event you want the new ones to show up too,
> so a struct input_event_raw would be better here. That also has better
> namespacing in general. Second though: the event isn't any more "raw" than
> the previous we had.
>
> I can't think of anything better than struct input_event_v2 though.

The general idea was to leave the original struct input_event as a
common interface for userspace (as it cannot be deleted).
So reading raw data unformatted by the userspace will have the new
struct raw_input_event format.
This was the reason for the "raw" in the name.

struct input_event_v2 is fine too, if this is more preferred.

>> This replaces timeval with struct input_timeval. This structure
>> maintains time in __kernel_ulong_t or compat_ulong_t to allow
>> for architectures to override types as in the case of x32.
>>
>> The change requires any userspace utilities reading or writing
>> from event nodes to update their reading format to match
>> raw_input_event. The changes to the popular libraries will be
>> posted along with the kernel changes.
>> The driver version is also updated to reflect the change in
>> event format.
>
> Doesn't this break *all* of userspace then? I don't see anything to
> negotiate the type of input event the kernel gives me. And nothing right now
> checks for EVDEV_VERSION, so they all just assume it's a struct
> input_event. Best case, if the available events aren't a multiple of
> sizeof(struct input_event) userspace will bomb out, but unless that happens,
> everyone will just happily read old-style events.
>
> So we need some negotiation what is acceptable. Which also needs to address
> the race conditions we're going to get when events start coming in before
> the client has announced that it supports the new-style events.

No, this does not break any userspace right now.
Both struct input_event and struct raw_input_event are exactly the same today.
This will be the case until a 2038-safe glibc is used with a 64 bit time_t flag.

So these are the scenarios:
1. old kernel driver + new userspace
-- should still be ok until 2038. Version checks could help discover these
2. new kernel driver + old userspace (without recompiled with new 2038 gblic)
-- works because the format is really the same.

The patch I posted to libevdev checks this driver version.
And, hence any library that results in a call to libevdev_set_fd()
will fail if it is not this updated driver.
We could just do a similar check in every library also.
I think the latter would be better.

So, the kernel patches can go in as a no-op right now and then I can
add version checks to respective user space libraries.

-Deepa