From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sun, 14 Jan 2001 06:47:18 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sun, 14 Jan 2001 06:47:07 -0500 Received: from Cantor.suse.de ([194.112.123.193]:3338 "HELO Cantor.suse.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Sun, 14 Jan 2001 06:47:01 -0500 Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 12:46:59 +0100 From: Andi Kleen To: "David S. Miller" Cc: Andi Kleen , Igmar Palsenberg , Harald Welte , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: 2.4.0 + iproute2 Message-ID: <20010114124659.A23188@gruyere.muc.suse.de> In-Reply-To: <14945.26991.35849.95234@pizda.ninka.net> <14945.28354.209720.579437@pizda.ninka.net> <20010114115215.A22550@gruyere.muc.suse.de> <14945.34208.281500.226085@pizda.ninka.net> <20010114123310.A23011@gruyere.muc.suse.de> <14945.36695.669979.754755@pizda.ninka.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <14945.36695.669979.754755@pizda.ninka.net>; from davem@redhat.com on Sun, Jan 14, 2001 at 03:36:55AM -0800 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, Jan 14, 2001 at 03:36:55AM -0800, David S. Miller wrote: > > Andi Kleen writes: > > How would you pass the extended errors? As strings or as to be > > defined new numbers? I would prefer strings, because the number > > namespace could turn out to be as nasty to maintain as the current > > sysctl one. > > Textual error messages for system calls never belong in the kernel. > Put it in glibc or wherever. This just means that a table needs to be kept in sync between glibc and netlink, and if someone e.g. gets a new CBQ module he would need to update glibc. It's also bad for maintainers, because patches for tables of number tend to always reject ;) Textual error messages are e.g. used by plan9 and would be somewhat similar to /proc. It would probably waste a few bytes in the kernel, but that's not too bad, given the work it saves. e.g. rusty's code usually has a debug option that you can set and where each EINVAL outputs a error message; i always found that very useful and sometimes hacked that into other subsystems in my private tree. -Andi - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/