From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Jay Cliburn <jacliburn@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [PATHCH 1/16]  ServerEngines 10Gb NIC driver
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:02:12 -0600
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Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, shemminger@linux-foundation.org,
	sam@ravnborg.org, jeff@garzik.org
To: "Subbu Seetharaman" <subbus@serverengines.com>
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On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:00:51 -0800
"Subbu Seetharaman" <subbus@serverengines.com> wrote:

> I have one question about bit fields. Several of  
> headers in the common code are  generated by  
> srcgen from f/w source files.  Some of the  structures 
> in these headers  have bit fields (with separate definitions 
> for little endian and big endian hosts).  Are these un-acceptable 
> in Linux driver submissions ?

The netdev maintainer, Jeff Garzik (to whom you should submit your
driver), frowns upon the use of bitfields, and for good reason.  See,
for example, 
http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=118444531031506&w=2 
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/5/361
http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/6/20/470
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_field.

You should avoid them if at all possible.