Re: [PATCH] Shorten constant names for EFI variable attributes

From: Khalid Aziz
Date: Thu Jul 26 2012 - 13:28:32 EST


On 07/23/2012 07:26 AM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 03:10:56PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
On 07/20/2012 03:08 PM, Khalid Aziz wrote:
Replace very long constants for EFI variable attributes
with shorter and more convenient names. Also create an
alias for the current longer names so as to not break
compatibility with current API since these constants
are used by userspace programs. This patch depends on
patch <https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/13/313>.
I think these some from the EFI specifcation, so NAK IMO.
From the point of view of making efivars more readable, I'd certainly
prefer shorter constant names. Keeping an alias is necessary only
because it's an existing exposed interface. The specification doesn't
actually require the use of these specific names anywhere, and we've
taken a more relaxed attitude in other bits of the EFI code.

Matthew,

I also do not believe that kernel must use the constant names mentioned in the specification especially when the name reaches 50 characters. We can not get away from having to create aliases. Do you think having aliases in efi.h can cause mixed use of long names and short names in future code in the kernel? Can we address this by suggesting to future code authors that they should use the short names in their code? Should we consider inclusion of this patch in the kernel?

--
Khalid Aziz
khalid.aziz@xxxxxx

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