Re: Should struct inode be made available to userspace?

From: Bill Davidsen
Date: Sat Jan 03 2004 - 13:40:52 EST


viro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 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.

--
bill davidsen <davidsen@xxxxxxx>
CTO TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
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