Re: [PATCH v2 02/24] exec: Simplify unshare_files

From: Arnd Bergmann
Date: Tue Nov 24 2020 - 15:15:27 EST


On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 8:58 PM Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 11:55 AM Eric W. Biederman
> <ebiederm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > If cell happens to be dead we can remove a fair amount of generic kernel
> > code that only exists to support cell.
>
> Even if some people might still use cell (which sounds unlikely), I
> think we can remove the spu core dumping code.

The Cell blade hardware (arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/) that I'm listed
as a maintainer for is very much dead, but there is apparently still some
activity on the Playstation 3 that Geoff Levand maintains.

Eric correctly points out that the PS3 firmware no longer boots
Linux (OtherOS), but AFAIK there are both users with old firmware
and those that use a firmware exploit to run homebrew code including
Linux.

I would assume they still use the SPU and might also use the core
dump code in particular. Let's see what Geoff thinks.

Arnd