Re: Binary sysfs blobs

[Pete Zaitcev]

On Tue, 11 Apr 2006 13:42:03 -0700, Greg KH <greg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> No.  Binary sysfs files are for "pass-through" mode only.  You are ONLY
> allowed to use them if you want to read from, or write to, some bit of
> hardware and not manipulate the data at all.  Examples of this is the
> raw PCI config space, firmware binary blobs and BIOS upgrades.

I see. Kind of the opposite of what I thought they were, but it
makes sense. Thanks.

> You should NEVER pass a raw structure through sysfs by using a binary
> file.  If anyone sees anywhere in the current kernel that does this,
> please let me know and I'll go hit them with a big stick...

I dunno how raw this is, but chp_measurement_copy_block and
chp_measurement_read (in drivers/s390/cio/chsc.c) sure look like
passing structures, in 2.6.17-rc1. However, the code does not interpret
the structures, so maybe it's raw enough.

-- Pete
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