[RFC][PATCH 0/3] Process events biarch bug: Intro

From: Matt Helsley
Date: Tue Jun 27 2006 - 07:50:37 EST


The events sent by Process Events from a 64-bit kernel are not binary compatible
with what a 32-bit userspace program would expect to recieve because the timespec
struct (used to send a timestamp) is not the same. This means that fields stored
after the timestamp are offset and programs that don't take this into account
break under these circumstances.

This is a problem for 32-bit userspace programs running with 64-bit kernels on
ppc64, s390, x86-64.. any "biarch" system.

This series:

1 - Gives a name to the union of the process events structure so it may be used
to work around the problem from userspace.
2 - Comments on the bug and describes a userspace workaround in
Documentation/connector/process_events.txt
3 - Implements a second connector interface without the problem
(Removing the old interface or changing the definition would break
binary compatibility)

Compiled, booted, and lightly tested.

Comments or suggestions on alternate approaches would be appreciated.

Cheers,
-Matt Helsley

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