linux-kernel - Re: Official Linux system wrapper library?

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Message-ID: <a50dbc52-b5e8-6684-508d-b96ad8d70d4f@davidnewall.com>
Date:   Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:41:05 +1030
From:   David Newall <glibc@...idnewall.com>
To:     Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>,
        Daniel Colascione <dancol@...gle.com>
Cc:     "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@...il.com>,
        linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Joel Fernandes <joelaf@...gle.com>,
        Linux API <linux-api@...r.kernel.org>,
        Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>, Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Carlos O'Donell <carlos@...hat.com>,
        "libc-alpha@...rceware.org" <libc-alpha@...rceware.org>
Subject: Re: Official Linux system wrapper library?

On 24/11/18 12:04 am, Florian Weimer wrote:
> But socketcall does not exist on all architectures.  Neither does
> getpid, it's called getxpid on some architectures.
> ...
> I think it would be a poor approach to expose application developers to
> these portability issues.  We need to abstract over these differences at
> a certain layer, and applications are too late.

Interesting.  I think the opposite.  I think exposing the OS's 
interfaces is exactly what a c-library should do.  It might also provide 
alternative interfaces that work consistently across different 
platforms, but in addition to, not instead of the OS interface.