linux-kernel - Re: RFD: x32 ABI system call numbers

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Message-ID: <877h5lh0ay.fsf@mid.deneb.enyo.de>
Date:	Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:40:21 +0200
From:	Florian Weimer <fw@...eb.enyo.de>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"H.J. Lu" <hjl.tools@...il.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: Re: RFD: x32 ABI system call numbers

* Linus Torvalds:

> On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 5:36 PM, Linus Torvalds
> <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:
>>
>> There is *ZERO* reason to not use it. Use the standard 64-bit
>> structure layout. Why the hell would it be a new system call?
>
> Oh, I see why you do that. It's because our 64-bit 'struct stat' uses
> "unsigned long" etc.
>
> Just fix that. Make it use __u64 instead of "unsigned long", and
> everything should "just work". The 64-bit kernel will not change any
> ABI, and when you compile your new ia32 model, it will do the right
> thing too.

And even if you don't want to do that (probably somebody wants to
recompile broken applications, same rationale as for n32, see
<http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2011-02/msg00243.html>), you can still do
the translation in user space.  Then tools like strace and valgrind
just work, and you don't risk introducing kernel vulnerabilities
through broken translation code.
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