[PATCH v10 10/26] gunyah: vm_mgr: Introduce basic VM Manager

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Tue, Feb 28, 2023, at 02:06, Alex Elder wrote:
> On 2/24/23 4:48 PM, Elliot Berman wrote:
>> I'd be open to making GH_CREATE_VM take a struct argument today, but I 
>> really don't know what size or what needs to be in that struct. My hope 
>> is that we can get away with just an integer for future needs. If 
>> integer doesn't suit, then new ioctl would need to be created. I think 
>> there's same problem if I pick some struct today (the struct may not 
>> suit tomorrow and we need to create new ioctl for the new struct).
>
> I'd like someone to back me up (or tell me I'm wrong), but...
>
> I think you can still pass a void in/out pointer, which can
> be interpreted in an IOCTL-specific way, as long as it can
> be unambiguously processed.
>
> So if you passed a non-null pointer, what it referred to
> could contain a key that defines the way to interpret it.
>
> You can't take away a behavior you've once supported, but I
> *think* you can add a new behavior (with a new structure
> that identifies itself).
>
> So if that is correct, you can extend a single IOCTL.  But
> sadly I can't tell you I'm sure this is correct.

In general you are correct that the behavior of an ioctl
command can be changed by reusing a combination of inputs that
was previously prohibited. I can't think of a case where that
would be a good idea though, as this just adds more complexity
than defining a new ioctl command code.

Interface versions and multiplexed ioctl commands are
all discouraged for the same reason.

      Arnd