Re: [PATCH 15/14] arm: Rename PMD_ORDER to PMD_BITS

Russell King (Oracle)
2022-07-04T04:32:51Z

On Sun, Jul 03, 2022 at 10:54:49PM +0100, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 03, 2022 at 10:16:45PM +0100, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 03, 2022 at 10:14:41PM +0100, Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) wrote:
> > > This is the number of bits used by a PMD entry, not the order of a PMD.
> >
> > No, it's not the number of bits. A PMD entry doesn't fit in 2 or 3 bits.
> > This is even more confusing.
>
> Well, what is it then? The order of something is PAGE_SIZE << n, and
> that doesn't seem to be what this is.

Where is it defined that "order" means "PAGE_SIZE << n" ?

"order" here is "order of magnitude" and in this case, it is 2^n, just
like order of magnitude in base 10 is 10^n. So strictly, the usage
here is completely correct, but if you describe "order" as "PAGE_SIZE <<
n" that is no longer an order of magnitude, because it doesn't increase
in an order of magnitude (iow, n = 2 isn't PAGE_SIZE * PAGE_SIZE).

Now, if you're trying to tell me that Linux has decided to define
"order" to be something non-standard, I'll accept that, but then we
shouldn't be renaming stuff that is using it in a standard way.

--
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