Re: Strange Linux behaviour with blocking syscalls and stopsignals+SIGCONT

[Michael Kerrisk]

Von: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> 
> > There must be some framework for changing the kernel ABI over time.
> > We can't remain forever stuck with an ABI behaviour because 
> > of the development model (i.e., no 2.7/2.8). 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> this has nothing to do with the development model. 

Doh!  yes, thanks for pointing that out.

> The userspace syscall
> ABI *has* to be stable. If we make a mistake that's a high price but we
> pay it. This fwiw is one of the reasons we are/should be very careful
> with adding system calls, and make sure the behavior is indeed right.
> It's also the reason we're not so happy about new ioctls; they're
> effectively mini-system calls with the same ABI issues, but just less
> controlled/reviewed/designed/visible.

Yes.  

There have been ABI changes in the past.  In the end, I assume 
it's a question of relative desirability ("how broken is existing 
behaviour"; or: "was that behaviour ever desirable/portable 
anyway?") versus relative likelihood of breaking applications.

Cheers,

Michael
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