Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__

Linus Torvalds
2004-11-29T23:08:15Z

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>
> I don't see it as obvious at all. The need for an agreement between
> two parties on an ABI doesn't imply that one party gets to define it
> and the other gets to follow it.

Sorry, but that's not how it works.

He who writes the code decides what it is. In this case, if the kernel
does a new extension, it's the kernel that gets to decide what it is.
Full stop.

If glibc wants to do something new, go wild. The kernel won't care.

And that's really the fundamental issue. The kernel does not care what
user land does. The kernel exports functionality, the kernel does _not_
ask user land to help.

That _does_ make it a one-way street. Sorry.

Linus