2014-10-26 12:25:31

by Skidanov, Alexey

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Subject: 32 bit user space compatibility

Hi,

Running 32 bit user space needs some work to be done with ioctls. I understand that there are two options to implement:
1. Use only fixed size types. Pad IOCTLS params to multiple of 64 bits - simple; don't know if it covers all compatibility issues;
2. 32 bit compatibility layer (through compat_ioctl, just like many drivers in kernel implement) - just a little bit simple code with some translations; really covers all issues;

Which one is preferred by kernel community?

Thanks
Alexey


2014-10-28 22:34:51

by Alan Cox

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: 32 bit user space compatibility

On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:25:08 +0000
"Skidanov, Alexey" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Running 32 bit user space needs some work to be done with ioctls. I understand that there are two options to implement:
> 1. Use only fixed size types. Pad IOCTLS params to multiple of 64 bits - simple; don't know if it covers all compatibility issues;
> 2. 32 bit compatibility layer (through compat_ioctl, just like many drivers in kernel implement) - just a little bit simple code with some translations; really covers all issues;
>
> Which one is preferred by kernel community?

You shouldn't need to pad paramters in most cases as platform alignment
rules are usually sane for 32 and 64bit. #1 is preferred. #2 exists
because 64bit appeared after Linux was designed so it wasn't designed in
from day one.

2014-11-03 12:46:25

by Yann Droneaud

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: 32 bit user space compatibility

Hi,

Le mardi 28 octobre 2014 à 22:34 +0000, One Thousand Gnomes a écrit :
> On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:25:08 +0000
> "Skidanov, Alexey" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> > Running 32 bit user space needs some work to be done with ioctls. I understand that there are two options to implement:
> > 1. Use only fixed size types. Pad IOCTLS params to multiple of 64 bits - simple; don't know if it covers all compatibility issues;
> > 2. 32 bit compatibility layer (through compat_ioctl, just like many drivers in kernel implement) - just a little bit simple code with some translations; really covers all issues;
> >
> > Which one is preferred by kernel community?
>
> You shouldn't need to pad paramters in most cases as platform alignment
> rules are usually sane for 32 and 64bit.

In most case, except i386 (ia32) vs amd64 (x86_64): u64 are going to be
aligned on 4 bytes boundaries for 32bits ABI and 8 bytes boundaries for
64bits ABI.

I've tried to explained this issue in a lightning talk[1][2] I'd given
at Kernel Recipes[3] this year.

[1] http://opteya.com/talks/2014/kernel-recipes/lightning-talk-kernel-userspace-ABI/
[2] https://gitorious.org/opteya/talk-kernel-userspace-abi
[3] http://kernel.recipes/

Regards.

--
Yann Droneaud
OPTEYA