Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 11:08:24PM +0000, David Howells wrote: > > Define FOLL_SOURCE_BUF and FOLL_DEST_BUF to indicate to get_user_pages*() > > and iov_iter_get_pages*() how the buffer is intended to be used in an I/O > > operation. Don't use READ and WRITE as a read I/O writes to memory and > > vice versa - which causes confusion. > > > > The direction is checked against the iterator's data_source. > > Why can't we use the existing FOLL_WRITE? Because FOLL_WRITE doesn't mean the same as WRITE: (1) It looks like it should really be FOLL_CHECK_PTES_WRITABLE. It's not defined as being anything to do with the I/O. (2) The reason Al added ITER_SOURCE and ITER_DEST is that the use of READ and WRITE with the iterators is confusing and kind of inverted - and the same would apply with using FOLL_WRITE: if (rw == READ) gup_flags |= FOLL_WRITE; So my thought is to make how you are using the buffer described by the iterator explicit: "I'm using it as a source buffer" or "I'm using it as a destination buffer". Also, I don't want it to be FOLL_WRITE or 0. I want it to be written explicitly in both cases. If you're going to insist on using FOLL_WRITE, then there should be a FOLL_READ to go with it, even if it's #defined to 0. David