Re: [PATCH] ppc32: removed usage of <asm/segment.h>

quoted

There are perfectly valid uses of kernel headers from userspace.  For
example if a program uses the netlink interface, it should include
<linux/netlink.h>.  It's the interface definition after all.

Glibc headers also include <linux/*> and <asm/*> in quite few places.

But these files in /usr/include/ aren't provided by the kernel anymore.

They are provided by _one_ kernel, not necessarily the running kernel.

That doesn't make them any less a kernel header.

So if some userspace program depends on header <linux/x.h> to get the
interface definition for feature x, and you remove <linux/x.h> from
the current kernel, it _will_ break the userspace program some time
later, when glibc picks up the new kernel.

Having said that that, <asm/segment.h> may or may not be validly
exported to userspace.

Miklos

On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 11:15:39AM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote:

They are provided by _one_ kernel, not necessarily the running kernel.

No, they're provided by packages like glibc-kernheaders or similar
that are maintained separately.  They're split from the kernel headers
and we don't need to keep obsolete junk around.