Re: Should struct inode be made available to userspace?

[Bill Davidsen <davidsen _at_ xxxxxxx>]

viro _at_ parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 01:39:41PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> 
>>viro _at_ parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk wrote:
>>
>>
>>>struct inode and structures containing it should not be used outside of 
>>>kernel.
>>>Moreover, foo_fs.h should be seriously trimmed down and everything _not_
>>>useful outside of kernel should be taken into fs/foo/*; other kernel code
>>>also doesn't give a fsck for that stuff, so it should be private to 
>>>filesystem
>>>instead of polluting include/linux/*.
>>
>>Moving the definitions is fine, but some user programs, like backup 
>>programs, do benefit from direct interpretation of the inode. Clearly 
>>that's not a normal user program, but this information is not only 
>>useful inside the kernel.
> 
> 
> No, they do not.  They care about on-disk structures, not the in-core
> ones fs driver happens to build.

Pardon, I thought that was exactly what was being suggested to hide.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen _at_ tmr.com>
   CTO TMR Associates, Inc
   Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
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