Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__

Arnd Bergmann
2004-11-27T23:01:35Z

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 952 bytes --]

On Sünnavend 27 November 2004 18:16, you wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-11-27 at 08:47 -0800, Randy.Dunlap wrote:
> > Speaking of more explicit, there are various asm-ARCH header
> > files that do or do not hide (via __KERNEL__) interfaces
> > such as:      get_unaligned()
> > and the atomic operations.
> >
> > So are these Linux kernel exported APIs, or do they belong
> > in some library?
>
> Both of those are kernel-private and should not be visible.

The problem with these (atomic.h, bitops.h, byteorder.h, div64.h,
list.h, spinlock.h, unaligned.h and xor.h) is that they provide
functionality that is needed by many user application but not
provided by the compiler or libc.

While I agree that it is an absolutely evil concept to include
them from the kernel headers, we have to face that by not installing
them, lots of this existing evil user code will be broken even
more and someone has to pick up the pieces.

Arnd <><

[-- Attachment #2: signature --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]