Re: [PATCH] add a stub by which a module can bind to the AFS syscall

[chas williams]

In message <[e-mail]>,Christoph Hellwig writes:
>We need to repeat a mistake others did has never been a valid
>argument in linux devlopment..  Anyway, it's really hard to judge about
>this before seeing the actual implementation instead of just saying
>here's a stub I need.

at the time afs was written it wasnt a mistake.  syscall was the only
(easy) way into the kernel from user space.  adding multiple syscalls
would have just been completely painful.  as for examples, pioctl() --
the user space of the afs syscall -- is a bit like syssgi() i am afraid:

venus/fs.c:     code = pioctl(0, VIOC_GETCELLSTATUS, &blob, 1);
venus/fs.c:    code = pioctl(0, VIOC_SETRXKCRYPT, &blob, 1);
vlserver/sascnvldb.c:   code = pioctl(ti->data, VIOCGETVOLSTAT, &blob, 1);
auth/ktc_nt.c:  code = pioctl(0, VIOCNEWGETTOK, &iob, 0);
auth/ktc_nt.c:  code = pioctl(0, VIOCDELTOK, &iob, 0);
package/package.c:  code = pioctl(0, VIOC_AFS_SYSNAME, &data, 1);
venus/up.c:          code = pioctl(file1, _VICEIOCTL(2), &blob, 1);

in reality, very few things other than afs are going to want to use
the afs syscall (arla might be a possible user).