Small addition to console driver

Hi all:

Disclaimer:
I'm new here, sorry if I doing something wrong.

What I'm looking for:
I'm looking for comments and approval for a small addition to the console
driver (drivers/char/console.c).

Small description:
The attached patches adds a couple of new services to the TIOCLINUX ioctl
call, they are:

13 (get selection into a buffer): It copies the contents of the selection buffer (maintained in kernel space) into a user space provided buffer. Is something like "paste to a buffer" instead of just paste to the current console.

14 (get selection length): Returns the length of the selection buffer (0 if none selected).
-----------

The attached file (patch.diff) contains diffs that apply without offsets into 2.4.7 kernel, they are valid for 2.2.18 too (with offset). I also attached a simple test. It is in spanish but the code is quite obvious.

Additional question: Why the switch uses numbers? Shouldn't these values be defined as something like TIOCLINUX_GET_SELECTION in a header?

What's the purpose? Just allow pasting in text editors using menues or without the mouse middle button.

SET

--
Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET). (Electronics Engineer) Visit my home page: http://welcome.to/SetSoft or
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6552/
Alternative e-mail: [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
Address: Curapaligue 2124, Caseros, 3 de Febrero Buenos Aires, (1678), ARGENTINA Phone: +(5411) 4759 0013

@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
  *
  * Copy and paste function by Andrew Haylett,
  *   some enhancements by Alessandro Rubini.
+ *   get selection into a buffer and length by
+ *       Salvador E. Tropea <[email protected]>
  *
  * Code to check for different video-cards mostly by Galen Hunt,
  * <[email protected]>

@@ -2204,6 +2206,10 @@
 			return 0;
 		case 12:	/* get fg_console */
 			return fg_console;
+		case 13:	/* get selection into a buffer */
+			return get_selection_buffer(arg);
+		case 14:	/* get selection length */
+			return put_user(get_selection_length(), (unsigned int *)((char *)arg + 1));
 	}
 	return -EINVAL;
 }

@@ -288,6 +288,41 @@
 	return 0;
 }
 
+/* Copy the contents of the selection buffer into a
+ * user space buffer.
+ * Invoked by ioctl().
+ */
+int get_selection_buffer(const unsigned long arg)
+{
+	char *dest;
+	unsigned int length;
+	 
+	if (get_user(length, (unsigned int *)(arg + sizeof(char))))
+		return -EFAULT;
+	   
+	dest = (char *)(arg + sizeof(char) + sizeof(unsigned int));
+	
+	if (length > sel_buffer_lth)
+		length = sel_buffer_lth;
+	
+	if (sel_buffer) {
+		if (copy_to_user(dest, sel_buffer, length))
+			return -EFAULT;
+	} else {
+		length = 0;
+	}
+	__put_user(length, (unsigned long *)(arg + sizeof(char)));
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/* Get the selection buffer length.
+ * Invoked by ioctl().
+ */
+unsigned int get_selection_length(void)
+{
+	return sel_buffer ? sel_buffer_lth : 0;
+}
+
 /* Insert the contents of the selection buffer into the
  * queue of the tty associated with the current console.
  * Invoked by ioctl().

@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 extern int sel_loadlut(const unsigned long arg);
 extern int mouse_reporting(void);
 extern void mouse_report(struct tty_struct * tty, int butt, int mrx, int mry);
+extern int get_selection_buffer(const unsigned long arg);
+extern unsigned int get_selection_length(void);
 
 #define video_num_columns	(vc_cons[currcons].d->vc_cols)
 #define video_num_lines		(vc_cons[currcons].d->vc_rows)

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int i,res,fd,largo;
char buffer[sizeof(unsigned int)+2],*s;
unsigned int *lg=(unsigned int *)(buffer+1);

fd=open("/dev/tty1",O_RDWR);

printf("Averiguando el largo de la seleccion:\n"); buffer[0]=14; res=ioctl(fd,TIOCLINUX,&buffer); printf("La iotcl devuelve %d\n",res); printf("Largo: %u\n",*lg);
largo=*lg;
if (*lg==0) return 0;

printf("Pidiendo la seleccion:\n");
s=(char *)malloc(largo+sizeof(unsigned int)+2);
s[0]=13;
lg=(unsigned int *)(s+1);
*lg=largo;
res=ioctl(fd,TIOCLINUX,s);
printf("La iotcl devuelve %d\n",res);
largo=*lg;
printf("Largo devuelto: %d\n",largo);
s+=1+sizeof(unsigned int);
s[largo]=0;

for (i=0; s[i]; i++)

     if (s[i]==13) s[i]=10;

printf("Dice esto: '%s' (%d)\n",s,s[0]);
return 0;
}