Defining the kernel/user space interface

Defining the kernel/user space interface

Defining a clear public API using information hiding is good module design. Linux's system calls are its API. So why are the kernel developers soooo reluctant to officially document the public system calls for the kernel? They don't want userspace apps including kernel headers because they contain both public and private code. They insist the glibc hand-create duplicate (and thus buggy and always behind) headers for use in userspace apps. I hope Linus will accept these changes soon in 2.6 or 2.7.

Note: you can avoid this step in the future by logging into your LWN account.