Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 23 May 2002 10:09:28 -0700 (PDT) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: [RFC] POSIX personality |
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On Thu, 23 May 2002, Bill Davidsen wrote: > > I think the reason which comes to mind is avoiding future problems. By > having a single POSIX mode flag not only does the program not have to know > about setting the "right" other bits today, but if we find that POSIX > behaviour is needed in some other area in the future, the program doesn't > need to be modified and recompiled, because the POSIX behaviour "is in > there" for all things.
That's a nice argument in theory, but if you change the behaviour of existing flags, you might fix some program for the real semantics, but you might equally well _break_ some program that unwittingly depended on the old semantics.
So I think your argument is fundamentally flawed. The binary has been tested with the old behaviour, and assuming that you can "fix" existing binaries by changing kernel behaviour is a seriously flawed argument.
Yes, it might work for some programs, but basically you're on very thin ice.
Does Linux break stuff when absolutely required? Sure. But designing an interface that _plans_ on changing semantics is just incredibly stupid, and should absolutely not be done. Ever.
Linus
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