Re: [RFC][v8][PATCH 9/10]: Define clone3() syscall

From: Sukadev Bhattiprolu
Date: Wed Oct 21 2009 - 15:43:48 EST


H. Peter Anvin [hpa@xxxxxxxxx] wrote:
> On 10/21/2009 01:26 PM, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>
>> My question here is: what does "3" actually mean? In general, system
>> calls have not followed any convention of numbering to indicate
>> successive versions -- clone2() being the one possible exception that
>> I know of.
>>
>
> "3" is number of arguments.

To me, it is a version number.

mmap() and mmap2() both have 6 parameters.

Besides if wait4() were born before wait3(), would it still be wait4() :-)
But I see that it is hard to get one-convention-that-fits-all.

> It's better than "extended" or something
> like that simply because "extended" just means "more than", and a number
> at least tells you *how much more than*.

And extended assumes we wont extend again.

An informal poll of reviewers has clone3() with a slight advantage :-)

clone_extended() camp: Serge Hallyn, Kerrisk, Louis Rilling,
clone3(): Sukadev, H. Peter Anvin, Oren, Matt Helsley.

I like clone3() but am not insisting on it. I just want a name...

Sukadev
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