From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1952DC6FD1D for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 07:18:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S233200AbjDAHKI (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 Apr 2023 03:10:08 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:35012 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S230193AbjDAHKF (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 Apr 2023 03:10:05 -0400 X-Greylist: delayed 409 seconds by postgrey-1.37 at lindbergh.monkeyblade.net; Sat, 01 Apr 2023 00:10:03 PDT Received: from nimbus1.mmprivatehosting.com (nimbus1.mmprivatehosting.com [54.208.90.49]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D77941D855 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 00:10:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nimbus1.mmprivatehosting.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C1CC60034 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 07:03:13 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: amavis at mmprivatehosting.com Received: from dave.mielke.cc (unknown [174.116.27.113]) (Authenticated sender: relay@dave.mielke.cc) by nimbus1.mmprivatehosting.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 07:03:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: from beta.private.mielke.cc (beta.private.mielke.cc [192.168.0.2]) by dave.mielke.cc (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3B6FB491 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 03:03:11 -0400 (EDT) Received: from beta.private.mielke.cc (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by beta.private.mielke.cc (8.17.1/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id 33173A0U005027 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 03:03:10 -0400 Received: (from dave@localhost) by beta.private.mielke.cc (8.17.1/8.17.1/Submit) id 33173ARt005026 for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; Sat, 1 Apr 2023 03:03:10 -0400 Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2023 02:25:22 -0400 From: Dave Mielke To: Linux Kernel Mailing List Cc: Samuel Thibault Subject: The regrettable demise of the TIOCSTI ioctl. Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/2.1.5 (2021-12-30) Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org It seems that, starting in the 6.2 kernel (I think), there's a move underway to get rid of the TIOCSTI ioctl. The fact that the kernel configuration information says "provides no meaningful real-world utility any more" shows that the kernel developers seem to be unaware of an important subset of their users who absolutely depend on TIOCSTI. By removing TIOCSTI, you have broken several users' *ability* to work at all with their current hardware! The users I'm referring to are those who rely on their ability to work productively with braille devices. They use BRLTTY (see brltty.app). Most braille devices, these days, have braille keyboards. BRLTTY interprets what its users type on those braille keyboards, and uses TIOCSTI to inject those characters. Since I'm unaware of any adequate replacement for TIOCSTI, I'm asking (begging?) that this ioctl please be NOT removed. Even disablign it isn't good because a blind user who relies on his/her braille keyboard won't be able to fix the problem by logging in and issuing the needed sysctl command (try imagining how you'd do that without your keyboard). We could distribute a brltty.conf sysctl.d file, but that isn't a great idea either given that, in the end, it'd end up being run on all systems since BRLTTY is generally distributed. Please understand that it simply isn't true at all that TIOCSTI has no practical use these days. It most certainly does! Thanks for at least hearing me out. -- I believe the Bible to be the very Word of God: http://Mielke.cc/bible/ Dave Mielke | 2213 Fox Crescent | WebHome: http://Mielke.cc/ EMail: Dave@Mielke.cc | Ottawa, Ontario | Twitter: @Dave_Mielke Phone: +1 613 726 0014 | Canada K2A 1H7 |