linux-kernel - Re: If not readdir() then what?

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Sun, 08 Apr 2007 11:11:20 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>,
	Ulrich Drepper <drepper@...il.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: If not readdir() then what?

Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 07, 2007 at 04:36:33PM -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:
>> this functionality, and it is highly questionable how useful it is,
>> anyway.  If you use telldir/seekdir and keep the cookie for a long
>> time, even the POSIX-provided guarantees about files that are created
>> and deleted between the telldir() and seekdir() points in time makes
>> its utility highly dubious.
> 
> It's not going to solve anything at all.  We can't stop supporting
> functionality that has been there forever. 

Well, the question is if you can keep the seekdir/telldir cookie around 
as a pointer -- preferrably in userspace, of course.  You would 
presumably garbage-collect them on closedir() -- there is no other point 
at which you could.

I personally suspect that hch is right -- this stuff has been there 
since time immemorial and it'll be hard or impossible to deprecate it.

	-hpa
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/