On Wed, Dec 31, 2003 at 01:08:46AM +0100, Daniel Kobras wrote: > On Tue, Dec 30, 2003 at 07:13:15PM -0400, Ben Armstrong wrote: > > On Tue, Dec 30, 2003 at 02:22:14PM -0600, Daniel Kobras <kobras@debian.org> wrote: > > > Now, for the specific problem of videodev.h, the kernel happens to be > > > the one and only source providing an application interface--there's no > > > standard library inbetween. Hence, the videodev headers are actually > > > meant to be used from userspace, and it's a bug if they break in > > > userspace. > > Just because there's no standard library between doesn't mean they are meant > > to be used from userspace. > The lack of a standard library means that every application has to use > the kernel interface directly, and therefore needs to use the kernel > headers. 'Use' meaning 'either include or copy'. Requiring each > application developer to copy and edit the kernel headers to make them > suitable for userspace is not reasonable. But the kernel developers don't require each application developer to do this; they only require that, at a minimum, SOME application developer do this, and provide a library to wrap the kernel interfaces and provide any necessary compatibility shims. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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