Re: DVB Include files

[Jörn Engel]

On Wed, 25 June 2003 17:55:13 +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 06:49:50PM +0200, Marcus Metzler wrote:
> > You mean include/linux/dvb, I hope. Otherwise, it will break all user space
> > applications.
> 
> No.  At least I hope he didn't mean it :)  Userspace has no _goddamn_
> business to look at kernel headers.  Just stick a copy of those into
> /usr/include/dvb/ for your applications that's in the dvb-dev or whatever
> package.

Christoph, while I agree with you, I also see why a lot of people just
symlink /usr/include/linux to /usr/src/.../include/linux.  Pure
convenience and the lack of a dedicated collection of userspace
headers outside a distributions scope.

Seperating userspace headers from kernel headers would also be a good
thing, as the #ifdef __KERNEL__ #else #endif orgy could finally be
reduced a bit.

Since these headers do depend on the kernel version and should be the
official interface between kernel and userspace, maintaining them
inside the kernel tree would also, imho, be a Good Thing.

So imnsho the "don't use the kernel headers" comment I read on a
common basis is not a very helpful advice, as long as we are missing
in this respect.

Or did I miss something important and just exposed my stupidity?

Jörn

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