Re: [PATCH v2] x86: Remove compat vdso support

Linus Torvalds
2014-03-11T16:30:54Z

On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 9:14 AM, H. Peter Anvin <hpa@linux.intel.com> wrote:
>
> As much as I wouldn't mind getting rid of the compat vdso, I really
> don't understand why the trivial solution is being ruled out -- the
> trivial solution being to just reserve a little more space in the fixmap
> area.

No, the trivial solution is to stop adding crap to it.

And no, "just reserve a little more space for it" is neither trivial
nor a good idea. The fixed VDSO address is very much at the top of the
address space, so you can't allocate more space for it unless you do
one of

(a) make it non-contiguous
(b) get rid of the hole that is the very last page
(c) mess with the vsyscall pages and make it contiguous "backwards"

all of which sound like *horrible* ideas. Certainly not "trivial solution".

No, the trivial solution is to not mess with that legacy page at all.

Why is *that* trivial solution not on the table? Why the heck are
people hell-bent on changing this stupid legacy page around?

I find this whole thread very annoying. We shouldn't care about
x86-32, and certainly not from a performance angle - we should
consider it a "it's done, don't touch it" issue.

Linus