Re: [PATCH v4 3/8] bits: introduce fixed-type genmasks

Andy Shevchenko
2025-03-05T15:50:34Z

On Wed, Mar 05, 2025 at 10:22:44AM -0500, Yury Norov wrote:
> + Anshuman Khandual <anshuman.khandual@arm.com>
>
> Anshuman,
>
> I merged your GENMASK_U128() because you said it's important for your
> projects, and that it will get used in the kernel soon.
>
> Now it's in the kernel for more than 6 month, but no users were added.
> Can you clarify if you still need it, and if so why it's not used?
>
> As you see, people add another fixed-types GENMASK() macros, and their
> implementation differ from GENMASK_U128().
>
> My second concern is that __GENMASK_U128() is declared in uapi, while
> the general understanding for other fixed-type genmasks is that they
> are not exported to users. Do you need this macro to be exported to
> userspace? Can you show how and where it is used there?

FWIW, have you browsed via Debian source code browser? If you can't find it
there, you may remove from uAPI with a little chance of the ABI regression.

--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko