Message-ID: <43EEACA7.5020109@zytor.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:33:59 -0800
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
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To: linux-kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
       "'austin-group-l@opengroup.org'" <austin-group-l@opengroup.org>,
       Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>
Subject: The naming of at()s is a difficult matter
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I have noticed that the new ...at() system calls are named in what
appears to be a completely haphazard fashion.  In Unix system calls,
an f- prefix means it operates on a file descriptor; the -at suffix (a
prefix would have been more consistent, but oh well) similarly
indicates it operates on a (directory fd, pathname) pair.

However, some system calls, in particular fchownat, futimesat,
fchmodat and faccessat add the f- prefix for what appears to be
absolutely no good reason.  Logically, these system calls should be
named chownat, utimesat, chmodat, and accessat.

I understand some of this braindamage comes from Solaris, but some of
these calls do not.  We should avoid it if at all possible, and I
would recommend at least introducing aliases with the sane names.

         -hpa
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