On Thursday 17 January 2013 23:55:24 David Miller wrote: > From: Mike Frysinger <vap...@gentoo.org> > > the kernel already exports many types with a __kernel_ prefix. i changed > > the kernel headers in Gentoo for a few releases (2.6.28 - 2.6.34) to do > > the same thing to pretty much all the networking headers. a few > > packages broke, but the number was low, and trivial to fix (a sed would > > do it most of the time). > > > > it's also trivial for userland packages to detect that they need to do > > this sort of thing in a local header by using linux/version.h and a set > > of defines to redirect the new structure name back to the old one. > > > > would be a lot cleaner to just break it and be done. > > We are not at liberty to break something that has legitimately > compiled successfully for two decades.
i doubt there are code bases that have compiled successfully for that long w/out being changed. in fact, the kernel user headers (until recently) have been a volatile mess requiring constant care & feeding of user programs to keep compiling. if anything, this would simply be maintaining the status quo for a bit longer. > One thing you certainly don't have to be is happy about this header > file situation, but you cannot use that dissatisfaction as > justification to make the situation worse by breaking the build for > people outside of the world you directly control. i think you're making wrong assumptions about my position on the topic. i never said i was against cleaning up the kernel user headers (and in fact, you can find many commits from me doing exactly that over the years in the kernel). -mike
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