Re: [PATCH] Endianness-aware mkcramfs

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@zytor.com)
Tue, 04 Dec 2001 16:39:18 -0800


Ingo Oeser wrote:

>
> Yes, from a CS point of view.
>
> But practically cramfs is created once to contain some kind of
> ROM for embedded devices. So if we never modify these data again,
> why not creating it in the required byte order?
>
> Why wasting kernel cycles for le<->be conversion? Just because
> it's more general? For writable general purpose file systems it
> makes sense, but to none of romfs, cramfs etc.
>

Because otherwise you far too easily end up in a situation where every
system suddenly need to be able to support *BOTH* endianisms, at which
point you're really screwed; supporting dual endianism is significantly
more expensive than supporting the "wrong" endianism, and it affects all
systems.

Nip this one in the bud.

-hpa

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