Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262335AbUCLRQ3 (ORCPT ); Fri, 12 Mar 2004 12:16:29 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262357AbUCLRQ3 (ORCPT ); Fri, 12 Mar 2004 12:16:29 -0500 Received: from ebiederm.dsl.xmission.com ([166.70.28.69]:8374 "EHLO ebiederm.dsl.xmission.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262335AbUCLRQY (ORCPT ); Fri, 12 Mar 2004 12:16:24 -0500 To: Jeff Garzik Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] ethtool.h should use userspace-accessible types References: <40511868.4060109@usa.net> <4051EB42.8060903@pobox.com> From: ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) Date: 12 Mar 2004 10:06:08 -0700 In-Reply-To: <4051EB42.8060903@pobox.com> Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 987 Lines: 24 Jeff Garzik writes: > Eric W. Biederman wrote: > > Eric Brower writes: > > > >>Attached is a patch to 2.4's ethtool.h to use appropriate, > userspace-accessible > > >>data types (__u8 and friends, rather than u8 and friends). > > Why there is no #ifdef __KERNEL__ in this header to make it userspace > > safe. > > > Because it's not needed. I think we are in agreement. My intent was to say: Why change the types when there is no #ifdef __KERNEL__ in the header. With no #ifdef __KERNEL__ it exports definitions that are private to the kernel making it not safe for userspace to use. With kernel private definitions in there it will generate name space pollution if included by user space. Eric - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/