This is the mail archive of the
libc-alpha@sourceware.org
mailing list for the glibc project.
Re: [PATCH] locks: rename file-private locks to file-description locks
- From: Theodore Ts'o <tytso at mit dot edu>
- To: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk dot manpages at gmail dot com>
- Cc: Rich Felker <dalias at libc dot org>, Jeff Layton <jlayton at redhat dot com>, linux-fsdevel at vger dot kernel dot org, linux-kernel at vger dot kernel dot org, samba-technical at lists dot samba dot org, Ganesha NFS List <nfs-ganesha-devel at lists dot sourceforge dot net>, Carlos O'Donell <carlos at redhat dot com>, libc-alpha <libc-alpha at sourceware dot org>, "Stefan (metze) Metzmacher" <metze at samba dot org>, Christoph Hellwig <hch at infradead dot org>
- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:48:41 -0400
- Subject: Re: [PATCH] locks: rename file-private locks to file-description locks
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <1398087935-14001-1-git-send-email-jlayton at redhat dot com> <20140421140246 dot GB26358 at brightrain dot aerifal dot cx> <535529FA dot 8070709 at gmail dot com> <20140421161004 dot GC26358 at brightrain dot aerifal dot cx> <5355644C dot 7000801 at gmail dot com>
On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 08:32:44PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> So, can you *please* answer this question: what do you call (i.e.,
> what everyday technical language term do use for) the thing
> that sits between a file descriptor and an i-node?
>
> (Please don't say 'struct file' -- that is not is an implementation
> detail, and does not qualify as the kind of term that I could use
> when documenting this feature in man pages.)
At least in a few places, if you are going to use "file description",
could you at least add a parenthetical comment:
(commonly called a "struct file" by Linux kernel developers)
Yes, it's an implementation detail, but it's one that's been around
for over two decades, and IMHO highly unlikely to change in the
future. So if you really want to use the POSIX terminology, it would
probably be a good idea to also use the term of art which is in common
use by the kernel developers, and I suspect has leaked out beyond
that.
I think it's actually a better and more functional name than what
POSIX uses, so maybe the best compromise is to use both, to make sure
there is no confusion. In particular, if we have text in the man
pages where we have "file description" and "file descriptor" in the
close proximity it would probably be good to add "(i.e., a struct file
by Linux kernel developers)" just for clarity.
Cheers,
- Ted