Re: cookies and kmem_alloc

[christos%zoulas.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)]

On Jan 26,  6:17am, dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost (David Holland) wrote:
-- Subject: Re: cookies and kmem_alloc

| On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 02:31:15PM -0500, Christos Zoulas wrote:
|  > The directory functions pass around ap_cookies, and ap_ncookies,
|  > but if one uses kmem_alloc() instead of malloc(), there is no way
|  > to kmem_free() the buffer, since we don't pass the size. I suggest
|  > that we add a new field called ap_acookies, which holds the size we
|  > allocated with kmem_alloc(), or it is 0 for compatibility for code
|  > that allocated the cookie buffer with malloc(). Any better ideas?
| 
| Burn down the in-kernel readdir interface and do a new one; it is
| terrible the way it is and there's nothing to be gained by attempting
| to polish it.

It is complicated to do that. And we'll need to retain compatibility at
the system call level which makes this harder.

| I don't yet have a clear handle on what the interface should be; but
| both the nfs-facing and userlevel-facing parts are no good as is. :(

Until we do, I suggest that we make its use easier.

christos