2686eb845d
The uapi <linux/nbd.h> header declares a 'char handle[8]' per request; which is overloaded in English (are you referring to "handle" the verb, such as handling a signal or writing a callback handler, or "handle" the noun, the value used in a lookup table to correlate a response back to the request). Many user-space NBD implementations (both servers and clients) have instead used 'uint64_t cookie' or similar, as it is easier to directly assign an integer than to futz around with memcpy. In fact, upstream documentation is now encouraging this shift in terminology: https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/commit/ca4392eb2b Accomplish this by use of an anonymous union to provide the alias for anyone getting the definition from the uapi; this does not break existing clients, while exposing the nicer name for those who prefer it. Note that block/nbd.c still uses the term handle (in fact, it actually combines a 32-bit cookie and a 32-bit tag into the 64-bit handle), but that internal usage is not changed by the public uapi, since no compliant NBD server has any reason to inspect or alter the 64 bits sent over the socket. Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Josef Bacik <josef@toxicpanda.com> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230410180611.1051618-3-eblake@redhat.com Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
Linux kernel
============
There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.