> I also don't quite understand the dislike of variable-sized records. > Don't getdents, inotify, Netlink all use them? And I think at least for > Netlink, more stuff is added all the time? Netlink is absolutely atrocious to work with because everything is variable sized and figuring out the correct allocation size is a complete nightmare even with the "helpful" macros that are provided. The bigger problem however is the complete untypedness even of the most basic things. For example, retrieving the mtu of a network interface through netlink is a complete nightmare. getdents, inotify, fanotify, open_by_handle_at()'s struct fiel_handle are all fine. But let's absolutely not take netlink as a model for anything related to mounts. And no one is against again variable sized records per se. I think we're coming to a good compromise here.