linux-kernel - Re: new architectures, time_t __kernel_long

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Date:	Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:57:31 +0000
From:	Al Viro <viro@...IV.linux.org.uk>
To:	Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>
Cc:	linux-arch@...r.kernel.org, Vineet.Gupta1@...opsys.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, James Hogan <james.hogan@...tec.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Subject: Re: new architectures, time_t __kernel_long_t

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 12:18:01PM +0000, Arnd Bergmann wrote:

> The other types that are used as 64 bit on x32 are ino_t, nlink_t,
> size_t, ssize_t, ptrdiff_t, and off_t.

*Kernel-side* we should not give a damn about the userland nlink_t, period.
Making it architecture-dependent had been a bad mistake that essentially
made nlink_t useless for the kernel.  That mistake had been fixed; please,
do not bring it back.  If some userland structure needs to include a field
encoding nlink_t values, please use an explicitly-sized type when refering
to it kernel-side.

The same should've been true for mode_t, but for historical reasons we
are using umode_t for just about everything and IMO we should kill the
last references to mode_t anywhere kernel-side (again, explicitly-sized
types for userland st_mode and friends on the last few architectures
still refering to mode_t there) and just rename umode_t to mode_t; I'm
sick and tired of playing whack-a-mole with code using (arch-dependent)
mode_t for kernel data.  And no, it's not always harmless - we had rather
ugly bugs based on that.
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