From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261598AbTDHTIC (for ); Tue, 8 Apr 2003 15:08:02 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261605AbTDHTIC (for ); Tue, 8 Apr 2003 15:08:02 -0400 Received: from neon-gw-l3.transmeta.com ([63.209.4.196]:12046 "EHLO neon-gw.transmeta.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261598AbTDHTIA (for ); Tue, 8 Apr 2003 15:08:00 -0400 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: "H. Peter Anvin" Subject: Re: Syscall numbers for BProc Date: 8 Apr 2003 12:19:24 -0700 Organization: Transmeta Corporation, Santa Clara CA Message-ID: References: <20030404193218.GD15620@lanl.gov> <20030405004427.GG15620@lanl.gov> <20030405064559.A2331@infradead.org> <20030405201537.GA18755@lanl.gov> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Disclaimer: Not speaking for Transmeta in any way, shape, or form. Copyright: Copyright 2003 H. Peter Anvin - All Rights Reserved Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Followup to: <20030405201537.GA18755@lanl.gov> By author: hendriks@lanl.gov In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel > > The reason it is the way it is because when I'm trying to avoid > stomping on other syscalls, having a small foot print is a good thing. > > BProc will always be a fringe kind of thing. Adding more than a > syscall or two seems like quite a bit of polution in the main kernel > to me. Similarly, I don't think the main kernel should include the > BProc patch. It changes fairly often, isn't 100% unintrusive and > would be used by less than .1% of people out there. > > Breaking out every call into a separate syscall number would also make > it more difficult to add new features in the future. > Well, first of all, multiplexes break a lot of tools. But worse, they lead to really badly designed APIs partially because of lack of review. You have just demonstrated this phenomenon... -hpa -- at work, in private! "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot." Architectures needed: ia64 m68k mips64 ppc ppc64 s390 s390x sh v850 x86-64