Re: [Keyrings] Re: [PATCH 01/04] Add multi-precision-integer maths library

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Arjan van de Ven wrote:

You are taking the wrong approach.

The _only_ question that matters is:
Why is it technically impossible to do the same in userspace?

If it's technically possible to do the same in userspace, it must not be done in the kernel.


that is not a reasonable statement because...
1) you can do all of tcp/ip in userspace just fine
2) you can do the NFS server in userspace
3) ...
4) ...

there are reasons why things that can be done in userspace sometimes
still make sense to do in kernel space, performance could be one of
those reasons, being unreasonably complex in userspace is another.

Identity management to some degree belongs in the kernel, simply because
identity *enforcing* is in the kernel. Some things related to security
need to be in the kernel at least partially just to avoid a LOT of hairy
issues and never ending series of security holes due to the exceptional
complexity you get.


Yes - nicely stated. There are a few cases in which code would be simpler in kernel, and there are even more cases where performance or security considerations argue for a mostly kernel implementation of a key piece of function. Although I don't know if the case has been reproven for web servers (userspace) or nfs server (kernel) recently, this case may be easier to work through if we understood the likely use scenarios better of this piece of code. I don't know the right answer for the particular math library question, but I have not seen the typical argument considered about whether a user space implementation of this paticular function could deadlock - ie would this code (proposed to move to userspace) ever be called in a path in which the: 1) kernel were out of memory and userspace is needed to resolve the write out of dirty memory 2) hang due to code going up to userspace in path in which key kernel semaphores must be held across the call.
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