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From: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel
Subject: Re: light weight user level semaphores
Date: 24 Apr 2001 00:19:46 GMT
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Linus Torvalds  wrote:
>Ehh.. I will bet you $10 USD that if libc allocates the next file
>descriptor on the first "malloc()" in user space (in order to use the
>semaphores for mm protection), programs _will_ break.
>
>You want to take the bet?

Good point.  Speaking of which:
  ioctl(fd, UIOCATTACHSEMA, ...);
seems to act like dup(fd) if fd was opened on "/dev/usemaclone"
(see drivers/sgi/char/usema.c).  According to usema(7), this is
intended to help libraries implement semaphores.

Is this a bad coding?  Should the kernel really support an ioctl()
that can silently allocate the next file descriptor?  This seems
like asking for trouble.  Or, maybe I just misunderstood something.
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