Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__

Linus Torvalds
2004-11-30T04:23:08Z

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Jean Tourrilhes wrote:
>
> So, which kernel ABI should be present on my system in
> /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm ? Should I use the ABI from
> 2.6.X, 2.4.X or 2.2.X ?

I have always felt (pretty strongly) that the /usr/include/xxx contents
should not be kernel-dependent, but be linked to your glibc version.
That's why the symlink from /usr/include/xxx to /usr/src/linux/include/
has been deprecated for the last, oh about ten years now..

Yes, there are some _very_ specific things which might care about system
calls or ioctl's that have been added later, but let's face it, we don't
actually do that very often. The kernel may change at a rapid pace, but
user interfaces don't, and user interfaces that would bypass the C library
change even less frequently.

Linus