On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 09:26:53AM -0400, Peter Staubach wrote:
> I must admit a little confusion here. Clearly, kernel header files are
> used at the user level. The kernel and user level applications must share
> definitions for a great many things.
Perhaps a little history would help. In the beginning, the kernel was
written with the intention that userland would be including the headers.
And libc did include the kernel headers.
This did provide an effective way to get new kernel features to show
up in userland, but it created all sorts of other problems. Eventually
it was decided/decreed that userland would NOT include kernel headers.
Instead, libc would provide a set of headers which would either be
compatable, or would marshel data into the form the kernel wanted.
I don't remember exactly when this was done, but I believe it was
some time in the late 90s. It's been this way a while now.
Thanks,
Jim
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