Bug 94259

Summary:	inotify.h not present in current linux-headers
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Rémi Cardona (RETIRED) <remi>
Component:	[OLD] Unspecified	Assignee:	Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers <kernel>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	normal	CC:	m.debruijne, Martin.vGagern, steev
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Rémi Cardona (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-05-28 02:18:20 UTC

I'm trying to code a small app that will be using inotify to watch events on
files. Inotify has been a part of gentoo-dev-sources and now gentoo-sources for
quite a while.

However the current associated linux-headers
(sys-kernel/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-r2 on x86) is not patched with inotify,
forcing me to either : 
- include my own inotify.h which is bad in case the API changes (this has
happened just a few weeks ago)
- include the inotify.h from /usr/src/linux/include/linux/inotify.h, which is
bad too (cdrecord did this, and we all know how it ended)

Is this doable simply or would it require massive changes?

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:



Expected Results:  
Kernel headers should match the current kernel (patch-wise)

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r9
sys-kernel/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-r2

Comment 1 Steev Klimaszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-05-28 20:28:59 UTC

The headers follow the vanilla-sources release.  I don't believe the inotify
patch is included with the vanilla kernel.

Comment 2 Rémi Cardona (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-05-29 00:58:01 UTC

Yes, inotify is a patch added into gentoo-sources by the kernel team.

However I don't know anyone on gentoo using vanilla-sources, and the gentoo
handbook advises you to use gentoo-sources. Wouldn't that make sense to have
corresponding headers?

Or something completely crazy : have a set of headers for every *-sources ?

(I'm just asking :)

Comment 3 Steev Klimaszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-05-29 04:19:18 UTC

I am not a Gentoo developer, but my guess would be, it follows the vanilla
sources because all the other sources are based upon it.  If it installed
inotify.h from the gentoo sources, it wouldn't help people who use mm-sources
which includes a different version of inotify (as an example).

Comment 4 Daniel Drake (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-05-30 14:55:54 UTC

Include your own inotify.h and fall-back to it if you can't find inotify.h in
the usual include places. This is how other apps do it. Yes, inotify is an
unstable API and you *will* encounter API/ABI compatibility problems regardless
of which header file you use.

Comment 5 Martin von Gagern 2006-02-18 06:22:02 UTC

As of linux 2.6.13-rc3, inotify is now part of the official vanilla sources.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rml/inotify/MERGED

Unfortunately, bumping linux-headers is an issue discussed in bug #100703 and currently the reason for a package.mask. So this bug should probably depend on 100703, but I'm not powerful enough to set dependencies. It could even be considered a dup, as inotify is mentioned there as well.