Re: [PATCH] Revised timerfd() interface

From: Michael Kerrisk
Date: Tue Sep 04 2007 - 04:24:44 EST


[...]
> > Neither of the proposed APIs (either my multiplexed version of
> > timerfd()
> > or Jon's/my idea of using three system calls (like POSIX timers), or
> > the notion of timerfd() integrated with POSIX timers) is more
> > complicated than the existing POSIX timers API.
> >
> > The ABI change doesn't really matter, since timerfd() was broken in
> > 2.6.22 anyway.
> >
> > Both previous APIs provided the features I have described provide:
> >
> > * the ability to fetch the old timer value when applying
> > a new setting
> >
> > * the ability to non-destructively fetch the amount of time remaining
> > on a timer.
> >
> > This is clearly useful for timers -- but you have not explained why
> > you think this is not necessary for timerfd timers.
>
> <wakes up>
>
> I'd have thought that the existing stuff would be near-useless without
> the capabilities which you describe?

Not useless, but certainly less functional than it can/should be
(and with not too much effort on the kernel implementation side).

Cheers,

Michael
--
Michael Kerrisk
maintainer of Linux man pages Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7

Want to help with man page maintenance?
Grab the latest tarball at
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages ,
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