linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH RFC] Introduce uniptr_t as a generic "universal" pointer

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Date:   Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:08:58 +0200
From:   Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com>,
        Mark Brown <broonie@...nel.org>, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC] Introduce uniptr_t as a generic "universal" pointer

On Wed, 09 Aug 2023 17:59:20 +0200,
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 9 Aug 2023 at 07:44, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de> wrote:
> >
> > The remaining question is whether the use of sockptr_t for other
> > subsystems as a generic pointer is a recommended / acceptable move...
> 
> Very much not recommended. sockptr_t is horrible too, but it was (part
> of) what made it possible to fix an even worse horrible historical
> mistake (ie getting rid of set_fs()).
> 
> So I detest sockptr_t. It's garbage. At the very minimum it should
> have had the length associated with it, not passed separately.
> 
> But it's garbage exactly because it allowed for conversion of some
> much much horrid legacy code with fairly minimal impact.
> 
> New code does *not* have that excuse.
> 
> DO NOT MIX USER AND KERNEL POINTERS. And don't add interfaces that
> think such mixing is ok. Pointers should be statically clearly of one
> type or the other, and never lied about.
> 
> Or you go all the way, and do that whole iterator thing, and make it
> very clear that you're doing something truly generic that can be
> passed fairly widely along across subsystem boundaries.

OK, it looks like we need to scratch the idea...


Takashi