common name for the kernel DSO

Both x86 and ia64 now provide a dynamically shared object (DSO) for system call purposes (e.g., to speed up system calls and for signal trampoline/sigreturn purposes). At the moment, the names of these DSOs are different:

	x86:	linux-vsyscall.so.1
	ia64:	linux-gate.so.1

I think there is some value in using the same name on all platforms that support such a DSO. vsyscall makes no sense for ia64, since there are no virtual syscalls (instead, ia64 linux provides a fast system call convention which, when coupled with light-weight system call handlers, provide full syscall semantics at more or less the speed of virtual system calls).

Not surprisingly, I like the name "linux-gate", since that is really what this DSO is all about: it's a gateway between user and kernel space. However, if this name isn't appropriate for x86, perhaps we can find another name which will be acceptable to everybody.

I already checked with Roland McGrath (cc'd), and he agrees that a common name would be good and said that he doesn't care about the particular name that will be used.

Does anyone have any strong feelings about this? If not, I plan to submit a patch to rename the x86 DSO to linux-gate.so.1.

Thanks,

	--david

Hi David.

I see no clean way to share the rules between the architectures, at least not without doing something very special for this. The second best alternative is to have the same implementation in all architectures supporting this, so my vote goes for the gate name.

PS. One day I hope to find a better solution for the gross ld_flags hack..

Sam

Sam> I see no clean way to share the rules between the architectures, Sam> at least not without doing something very special for this.

Yes. I think that's OK.

Sam> The second best alternative is to have the same implementation Sam> in all architectures supporting this, so my vote goes for the Sam> gate name.

OK, noted.

	--david