linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] sys_waitid: return -EFAULT for NULL

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Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.0901131629220.6528@localhost.localdomain>
Date:	Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:33:01 -0800 (PST)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Roland McGrath <roland@...hat.com>
cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, mtk.manpages@...il.com,
	kernel list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Ulrich Drepper <drepper@...hat.com>,
	Vegard Nossum <vegard.nossum@...il.com>,
	"linux-man@...r.kernel.org" <linux-man@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] sys_waitid: return -EFAULT for NULL



On Tue, 13 Jan 2009, Roland McGrath wrote:
>
> It's always been invalid to call waitid() with a NULL pointer.  It was an
> oversight that it was allowed (and acts like a wait4() call instead).

I'm not going to take this. 

If it was some new system call, of if there was some downside to out 
behavior, I might be interested. As it is, our behaviour has zero 
downside, and changing existing interfaces simply isn't worth it.

The alleged "downsides" are bogus:

 - POSIX is not that strict. EFAULT is one of the odd error cases anyway, 
   and even explicit requirements are irrelevant: if somebody wants to get 
   strict conformance paperwork done, you just need to tell where you 
   differ, and you're basically done. But perhaps more important, nobody 
   cares.

 - The "portability" argument is totally bogus, since it's not like you 
   compile programs without even testing to another UNIX _anyway_. 

So I'm simply not going to potentially break binaries over something that 
is so _totally_ irrelevant. Document it in the man-page instead.

		Linus
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