Re: [RFC] timers, pointers to functions and type safety

[Posted December 5, 2006 by corbet]

From:		Thomas Gleixner <tglx-AT-linutronix.de>
To:		Al Viro <viro-AT-ftp.linux.org.uk>
Subject:		Re: [RFC] timers, pointers to functions and type safety
Date:		Sat, 02 Dec 2006 13:59:30 +0100
Cc:		Linus Torvalds <torvalds-AT-osdl.org>, linux-arch-AT-vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org, gcc-AT-gcc.gnu.org

On Fri, 2006-12-01 at 17:21 +0000, Al Viro wrote:
> Now, there's another question: how do we get there?  Or, at least, from
> current void (*)(unsigned long) to void (*)(void *)...

I think the real solution should be 

	void (*function)(struct timer_list *timer);

and hand the timer itself to the callback. Most of the timers are
embedded into data structures anyway and for the rest we can easily
build one.

> "A fscking huge patch flipping everything at once" is obviously not an
> answer; too much PITA merging and impossible to review.

There are ~ 500 files affected and this is in the range of cleanups we
did recently at the end of the merge window already. I'd volunteer to
hack this up and keep the patch up to date until the final merge. I have
done that before and I'm not scared about it. The patches are a couple
of lines per file and I do not agree that this is impossible to review. 

	tglx