On Thu, May 03, 2018 at 06:40:07PM -0400, Arnd Bergmann wrote: > On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 5:51 PM, James Hogan <jhogan@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Due to the binary incompatibility between previous MIPS architecture > > generations and nanoMIPS, and the significantly revamped compiler ABI, > > where for the first time, a single Linux kernel would not be expected to > > handle both old and new ABIs, we have decided to also take the > > opportunity to modernise the Linux user ABI for nanoMIPS, making as much > > use of generic interfaces as possible and modernising the true > > architecture specific parts. > > > > This is similar to what a whole new kernel architecture would be > > expected to adopt, but has been done within the existing MIPS > > architecture port to allow reuse of the existing MIPS code, most of > > which does not depend on these ABI specifics. Details of the proposed > > Linux user ABI changes for nanoMIPS can be found here: > > While I haven't looked at the individual changes, I wonder whether > it would be useful to make this new ABI use 64-bit time_t from > the start, using the new system calls that Deepa and I have been > posting recently. Personally I'm all for squeezing as much API cleanup in as possible before its merged, though obviously there'll be a point when the ABI may need to be frozen, at which point we'll mostly have to accept what we have within reason. > There are still a few things to be worked out: > only the first of four sets of syscall patches is merged so far, > and we have a couple of areas that will require further ABI changes > (sound, sockets, media and maybe a couple of smaller drivers), > so it depends on the overall timing. If you would otherwise merge > the patches quickly, then it may be better to just follow the existing > 32-bit architectures and add the 64-bit entry points when we do it > for everyone. I think it'll likely be a couple of cycles before it gets merged anyway. There's still work to do, and limited resources. Cheers James
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