Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
sysfs-rules.txt: reword API stability statement
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
The first paragraph of this document implies that user space developers
shouldn't use sysfs at all, but then it goes on to describe rules that
developers should follow when accessing sysfs.  Not only is this somewhat
self-contradictory, it has been shown to discourage developers from using
established sysfs interfaces.

A note of caution is more appropriate than a blanket "sysfs will never
be stable" assertion.

Signed-off-by: Nathan Lynch <ntl@pobox.com>
Cc: Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
  • Loading branch information
Nathan Lynch authored and Greg Kroah-Hartman committed Jul 22, 2008
1 parent 9505e63 commit 83c79b5
Showing 1 changed file with 2 additions and 3 deletions.
5 changes: 2 additions & 3 deletions Documentation/sysfs-rules.txt
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -3,9 +3,8 @@ Rules on how to access information in the Linux kernel sysfs
The kernel-exported sysfs exports internal kernel implementation details
and depends on internal kernel structures and layout. It is agreed upon
by the kernel developers that the Linux kernel does not provide a stable
internal API. As sysfs is a direct export of kernel internal
structures, the sysfs interface cannot provide a stable interface either;
it may always change along with internal kernel changes.
internal API. Therefore, there are aspects of the sysfs interface that
may not be stable across kernel releases.

To minimize the risk of breaking users of sysfs, which are in most cases
low-level userspace applications, with a new kernel release, the users
Expand Down

0 comments on commit 83c79b5

Please sign in to comment.