I notice that a 32 bit process running on a 64 bit kernel is expected to know that it should fill in mips64_watch_regs --- even though it is running against a 32 bit ABI. Is this an oversight, or am I missing something ? [ That same 32 bit process must fill in mips32_watch_regs when running on a 32 bit kernel. ] In arch/mips/include/asm/ptrace.h: struct mips32_watch_regs { unsigned int watchlo[8]; ... }; and struct mips64_watch_regs { unsigned long long watchlo[8]; ... }; These are used in a union, but sizeof(mips64_watch_regs.watchlo) will not match sizeof(mips32_watch_regs.watchlo). For a 64 bit kernel, the code in arch/mips/kernel/ptrace.c reads: /* Check the values. */ for (i = 0; i < current_cpu_data.watch_reg_use_cnt; i++) { __get_user(lt[i], &addr->WATCH_STYLE.watchlo[i]); #ifdef CONFIG_32BIT if (lt[i] & __UA_LIMIT) return -EINVAL; #else if (test_tsk_thread_flag(child, TIF_32BIT_ADDR)) { if (lt[i] & 0xffffffff80000000UL) return -EINVAL; } else { if (lt[i] & __UA_LIMIT) return -EINVAL; } #endif Thus for a 64 bit kernel, WATCH_STYLE is defined to be mips64, and the code goes on to obtain: addr->mips64.watchlo[i] and to verify it based on TIF_32BIT_ADDR. In other words, the 32 bit process is expected to fill in mips64_watch_regs when it is running on a 64 bit kernel, and mips32_watch_regs when it is running on a 32 bit kernel. Earl