Nir Lichtman <nir@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On Mon, Nov 04, 2024 at 12:35:30PM -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote: >> Nir Lichtman <nir@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: >> >> > Fix some no longer true header/c file paths and correct the BAYCOM_MAGIC >> > value to be decimal as in the source instead of incorrectly hexadecimal >> > >> > Signed-off-by: Nir Lichtman <nir@xxxxxxxxxxxx> >> > --- >> > Documentation/staging/magic-number.rst | 6 +++--- >> > 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) >> >> I've applied this, thanks. I do continue to wonder about the value of >> this file in general, though... > > Agreed, it feels pretty much like abandoned book keeping that gives minimal > value since the chance of magics colliding is slim, but I think the general tip > before the table of magics is pretty good. > > What is your opinion about integrating the tip in a different page and deleting > this page entirely? Well, that's part of my reasoning, actually. I assume you're talking about this: > It is a **very** good idea to protect kernel data structures with magic > numbers. This allows you to check at run time whether (a) a structure > has been clobbered, or (b) you've passed the wrong structure to a > routine. The thing is, that's really not a guideline that anybody has followed for many years. I dug into this a while back: https://lwn.net/Articles/915163/ There was a series to remove all of this cruft a couple of years ago that the author eventually gave up on: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/cover.1668128257.git.nabijaczleweli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ Honestly, I think the best thing to do is to simply remove the file. Thanks, jon
