RE: [PATCH 0/2] mm: introduce MAP_FIXED_SAFE

[David Laight]

From: Michael Ellerman
> Sent: 08 December 2017 11:08
...
> If we had a time machine, the right set of flags would be:
> 
>   - MAP_FIXED:   don't treat addr as a hint, fail if addr is not free
>   - MAP_REPLACE: replace an existing mapping (or force or clobber)
> 
> But the two were conflated for some reason in the current MAP_FIXED.

Possibly because the original use was loading overlays?

> Given we can't go back and fix it, the closest we can get is to add a
> variant of MAP_FIXED which subtracts the "REPLACE" semantic.
> 
> ie: MAP_FIXED_NOREPLACE

Much better than _SAFE - which is always bad because it is usually
one 'safe' for one specific use case.

	David