Re: libz, libbz2, ramfs and cramfs

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <[e-mail]>
By author:    "Matt D. Robinson" <[e-mail]>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> > 
> > The -ac tree is moving to a single copy of zlib, in fs/inflate_fs.  It
> > is currently used by cramfs and zisofs.  jffs2 in the -ac tree still
> > uses its own copy of zlib and should be converted.
> 
> Any plans to fix this for the Linus tree?  Also, why place this in fs?
> Shouldn't this be around for PPP along with other things that
> can use it (like LKCD)?
> 

PPP uses a nonstandard deviant of zlib, or *so I've been told*, so
that one is out.

The reason it's in fs is because I wasn't feeling sure that the memory
management as implemented is adequate for non-fs-related
applications.  I might change that, though, but I wanted to move
somewhat slowly.

Memory management in zlib is nontrivial.  If you port the user-space
zlib the "obvious" way to kernel space, you get memory management that
is completely unacceptable to a filesystem application -- too easy to
get random errors due to memory allocation failures.

A major problem is that the module name "deflate" is used by PPP,
despite it being a nonstandard format...

	-hpa
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