Re: Linux Kernel include files

[Joerg Schilling]

David Woodhouse <dwmw2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 01:38 +0200, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> > The main problems are not really hard to fix......
> > 
> > -	Most problems eem to be related to the fact that Linux does not
> > 	use C-99 based types in the kernel and the related type definitions 
> > 	are not written in plain C. This is something that should be fixed
> > 	with a source consolidation program or by defining aliases to 
> > 	C-99 types in case the compiler is not GCC.
>
>
> The argument has been made that the standard C99 types are _optional_,
> and anything included from a C library's headers without _explicitly_
> being included by the user shouldn't define those types.

????

This uses double negation and is close to unreadable.

A kernel include file that defines an interface to a user space program
should be self containing (that means that all includes for all non-standard
types should be done inside these include files). Whether or not C-99 
types are used or not is less important than to use type definitions written 
in clean C so compilers other than gcc may use them.

> Personally, I think that's a load of bollocks. And it certainly doesn't
> apply to Linux-specific files like <linux/cdrom.h>, which are perfectly
> entitled to use a C standard from last millennium, regardless of
> namespace 'pollution' issues. That's why we continue to use the crappy
> __u32 types. Can you be more specific about why this is a problem? Don't
> we mostly define those crappy types using arch-specific knowledge, as
> 'int', 'long', etc?

I recommend you to install Sun Studio and to try to compile star or cdrtools
using Sun Studio by calling "make CCOM_suncc".

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/star/alpha/
ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/alpha/

You may need to hand edit the file incs/<arch-dir>/{xconfig.h!rules.conf}

in order to enable the auto-disabled features.

In any case, self reading the error messages from Sun Studio helps more than
trying to discuss it.

Jörg

-- 
 EMail:joerg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
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