Subject: Re: NODEVMTIME kernel option gone, replaced with mount flag
To: Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: current-users
Date: 12/02/1998 09:11:01
On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, Ken Hornstein wrote:

: >The major difficulty is that it means a bit of a flag day (fortunately
: >not a serious one, not nearly as much so as the 16-partition changes),
: >and breaks compatability with pre-change binaries.  Anyone have
: >thoughts on when and how - and even whether, I suppose - such a thing
: >should go in?

: It seems the easiest thing to do would be to simply create new system
: calls and version the old ones (statfs13, fstatfs13, and getfsstat13,
: I think).  This would get rid of any binary compatibility problems.
: What does everyone else think?

If you're changing a structure, this is required action, not "a better way
to do it".  Version them.

HOWEVER, you want to watch what you do with the structure, as you may run
into unforeseen alignment `stuff' on some platforms.  That should be
addressed automatically by the compiler, but for safety's sake, it may be
preferable to convert the type of both `f_type' _and_ `f_flags' to `u_int'.
(I don't quite see why f_type is signed; if it Should be that way, make it
`int'.)

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)