"Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On Sun, 5 Feb 2017, Matt Turner wrote: > >> > I don't think it is other than for PPC. If you're not variable endian >> > (which is only PPC to date), then you should know a priori what endian >> > you are from the #defines in userspace. >> >> MIPS as well, but it seems strange to require the kernel to tell you >> your endianness, when you can easily determine it yourself. Unless >> there's something about this I don't understand. > > Many MIPS processors do have a reverse-endian control bit, which allows a > user process to execute in the endianness opposite to the endianness the > kernel runs in. The feature has been around since 1991 and the R4000 CPU, > however support is unlikely to be ever added to the MIPS/Linux port, due > to the complexity required for byte-swapping all the data structures > passed in memory between the kernel and the userland. Does the PPC/Linux > port actually implement this swapping? No. Userspace can change endian, but it has to cope with the kernel being in the original endian. cheers -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-api" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
