Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S965183AbWECMeT (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 May 2006 08:34:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965182AbWECMeT (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 May 2006 08:34:19 -0400 Received: from wohnheim.fh-wedel.de ([213.39.233.138]:6376 "EHLO wohnheim.fh-wedel.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965180AbWECMeT (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 May 2006 08:34:19 -0400 Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 14:33:39 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rn?= Engel To: Michael Holzheu Cc: Pekka J Enberg , akpm@osdl.org, Greg KH , ioe-lkml@rameria.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Kyle Moffett , mschwid2@de.ibm.com Subject: Re: [PATCH] s390: Hypervisor File System Message-ID: <20060503123339.GB19537@wohnheim.fh-wedel.de> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1247 Lines: 31 On Wed, 3 May 2006 14:11:36 +0200, Michael Holzheu wrote: > > Maybe we need that, too. But I think the advantage of the > one file solution moves the complexity from the kernel > to userspace. Now might be a time to come back to Martin's prediction. ;) Having a weird format in some file does _not_ move complexity from the kernel. It may make the userspace more complex, granted. But once you try to change something, you need to keep the ABI stable. And part of the ABI is you file format. Applications will depend on some arcane detail of your format. They will depend on exactly five spaces in "foo bar". It does not even matter if you documented "any amount of whitespace". The application knows that it was five spaces and doesn't care. And once you change it, the blame will be on you, because you broke existing userspace. If that does not make the kernel complex, I don't know what does. J?rn -- It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. -- Confucius - 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/