From: Christoph Hellwig Subject: Re: RFC: Crypto API User-interface Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 10:06:46 -0400 Message-ID: <20100907140646.GA31921@infradead.org> References: <20100907084213.GA4610@gondor.apana.org.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Linux Crypto Mailing List , netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: Herbert Xu Return-path: Received: from bombadil.infradead.org ([18.85.46.34]:52386 "EHLO bombadil.infradead.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756181Ab0IGOGr (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Sep 2010 10:06:47 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20100907084213.GA4610@gondor.apana.org.au> Sender: linux-crypto-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, Sep 07, 2010 at 04:42:13PM +0800, Herbert Xu wrote: > Hi: > > This is what I am proposing for the Crypto API user-interface. Can you explain why we would ever want a userspace interface to it? doing crypto in kernel for userspace consumers sis simply insane. It's computational intensive code which has no business in kernel space unless absolutely required (e.g. for kernel consumers). In addition to that adding the context switch overhead and address space transitions is god awfull too. This all very much sounds like someone had far too much crack.