From owner-freebsd-net Sat Dec 16 12: 3:14 2000 From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 16 12:03:12 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from falla.videotron.net (falla.videotron.net [205.151.222.106]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79A6F37B400 for ; Sat, 16 Dec 2000 12:03:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from modemcable213.3-201-24.mtl.mc.videotron.ca ([24.201.3.213]) by falla.videotron.net (Sun Internet Mail Server sims.3.5.1999.12.14.10.29.p8) with ESMTP id <0G5O00MHWFPAYK@falla.videotron.net> for net@FreeBSD.ORG; Sat, 16 Dec 2000 15:03:10 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 15:04:25 -0500 (EST) From: Bosko Milekic Subject: Re: Changing the names of some M_flags In-reply-to: <20001216115319.Z19572@fw.wintelcom.net> To: Alfred Perlstein Cc: "Louis A. Mamakos" , net@FreeBSD.ORG Message-id: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sat, 16 Dec 2000, Alfred Perlstein wrote: > > Is this just going to make portablity between the various *BSD kernels > > more difficult for what's essentially a cosmetic change? I'm thinking > > of things like KAME, ALTQ, etc. > > I agree, however this argument keeps coming up: > "I thought M_WAIT meant it would wait forever!" > > Personally, I think developers should do a bit more research > and should have noticed all the places where M_WAIT was followed > by a check for NULL and be able to bridge the gap. > > So honestly, I'm against the change, but if it has to be done > then I'd like to see the M_DONTWAIT and M_TRYWAIT. > > -- > -Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org] > "I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk." This is _EXACTLY_ my opinion and standpoint on this issue. In terms of portability, though, let's be realistic: the name of a flag isn't going to be a major concern. When you port code, you typically have to read/understand what's going on anyway. So, if NetBSD for example, uses malloc() to allocate mbufs and passes the WAIT/NOWAIT flag directly down to malloc(), then it may as well never return if malloc() can't find a page. When porting to FreeBSD, the developer needs to know that that is not the case here and must make appropriate changes anyway. In fact, changing the flag may HELP the developer doing the porting into not making the mistake of assuming that it will be the same. Regards, Bosko Milekic bmilekic@technokratis.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-net" in the body of the message