Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:56:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu> To: dougb@freebsd.org Cc: arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] fadvise(2) system call Message-ID: <201110312256.p9VMuCG2075727@hergotha.csail.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <4EAF1F39.1090008@FreeBSD.org> References: <201110281426.00013.jhb@freebsd.org> <201110311024.07580.jhb@freebsd.org> <20111031190359.GP2258@hoeg.nl> <201110311717.53476.jhb@freebsd.org> <20111031221627.GR2258@hoeg.nl>
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In article <4EAF1F39.1090008@FreeBSD.org>, dougb@freebsd.org writes: >I don't see anyone in this thread saying that we should go back and >change things that we already have. But if we're going to implement a >new thing, giving it the standard name (however ugly, and I agree that >it's ugly) is almost certainly the right way to go. The existence of the posix_* names indicates that the pre-existing implementations, on which POSIX based its standard, had some conflict over the function's semantics or signature; the use of the reserved posix_ namespace allows pre-existing implementations to support pre-existing applications without conflicting with the requirements of the standard. The committee generally doesn't do this when all implementations agree on the name (or when it's just making stuff up, as it sometimes does). If I were asked what color this bikeshed should be, I would suggest that the most standard-compliant thing to do would be to name the public interface according to the standard, but I would not object to a set of macros which provided unprefixed names iff __BSD_VISIBLE. That way, use of the official POSIX interface does not depend on namespace pollution. (But this discussion should probably be taking place on standards@ rather than arch@.) -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
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