Re: [PATCH] sched.h: increment TASK_COMM_LEN to 20 bytes

[Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> Luben Tuikov <ltuikov@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> We do occasionally hit task_struct.comm[] truncation, when people use
>>> "too-long-a-name%d" for their kernel thread names.  But we seem to manage.
>> It would be especially helpful if you want to name a task thread
>> the NAA IEEE Registered name format (16 chars, globally unique), for things
>> like FC, SAS, etc.  This way you can identify the task thread with
>> the device bearing the NAA IEEE name.
>>
>> Currently just last character is cut off, since TASK_COMM_LEN is 15+1.
>>
>> I think incrementing it would be a good thing, plus other things
>> may want to represent 8 bytes as a character array to be the name
>> of a task thread.
> 
> OK, that's a reason.  Being able to map a kernel thread onto a particular
> device is useful.

But will it wind up this way, when the does-not-exist-yet-upstream code 
appears?

I would think it would make more sense to increase the size of the key 
task structure only when there are justified, merged users in the kernel.

	Jeff