arch/x86/include/asm/unistd.h vs. include/asm-generic/unistd.h

Question

What's the difference between these two files? I can't really get it. I should mention that the first file should be arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_32.h (or and _64.h). Here is a quick preview of what they contain:

---

arch/x86/include/asm/unistd.h:

---

#ifndef _ASM_X86_UNISTD_32_H
#define _ASM_X86_UNISTD_32_H

/*
 * This file contains the system call numbers.
 */

#define __NR_restart_syscall      0
#define __NR_exit         1
#define __NR_fork         2
#define __NR_read         3
#define __NR_write        4
#define __NR_open         5
#define __NR_close        6
#define __NR_waitpid          7
#define __NR_creat        8
#define __NR_link         9
#define __NR_unlink      10
#define __NR_execve      11
#define __NR_chdir       12
#define __NR_time        13
#define __NR_mknod       14
#define __NR_chmod       15
#define __NR_lchown      16
#define __NR_break       17
#define __NR_oldstat         18
#define __NR_lseek       19
#define __NR_getpid      20
#define __NR_mount       21
#define __NR_umount      22

---

include/asm-generic/unistd.h

---

#if !defined(_ASM_GENERIC_UNISTD_H) || defined(__SYSCALL)
#define _ASM_GENERIC_UNISTD_H

#include <asm/bitsperlong.h>

/*
 * This file contains the system call numbers, based on the
 * layout of the x86-64 architecture, which embeds the
 * pointer to the syscall in the table.
 *
 * As a basic principle, no duplication of functionality
 * should be added, e.g. we don't use lseek when llseek
 * is present. New architectures should use this file
 * and implement the less feature-full calls in user space.
 */

#ifndef __SYSCALL
#define __SYSCALL(x, y)
#endif

#if __BITS_PER_LONG == 32
#define __SC_3264(_nr, _32, _64) __SYSCALL(_nr, _32)
#else
#define __SC_3264(_nr, _32, _64) __SYSCALL(_nr, _64)
#endif

#define __NR_io_setup 0
__SYSCALL(__NR_io_setup, sys_io_setup)

#define __NR_io_destroy 1
__SYSCALL(__NR_io_destroy, sys_io_destroy)

#define __NR_io_submit 2
__SYSCALL(__NR_io_submit, sys_io_submit)

#define __NR_io_cancel 3
__SYSCALL(__NR_io_cancel, sys_io_cancel)

#define __NR_io_getevents 4
__SYSCALL(__NR_io_getevents, sys_io_getevents)

/* fs/xattr.c */

#define __NR_setxattr 5
__SYSCALL(__NR_setxattr, sys_setxattr)

#define __NR_lsetxattr 6
__SYSCALL(__NR_lsetxattr, sys_lsetxattr)

#define __NR_fsetxattr 7
__SYSCALL(__NR_fsetxattr, sys_fsetxattr)

#define __NR_getxattr 8
__SYSCALL(__NR_getxattr, sys_getxattr)

#define __NR_lgetxattr 9
__SYSCALL(__NR_lgetxattr, sys_lgetxattr)

#define __NR_fgetxattr 10
__SYSCALL(__NR_fgetxattr, sys_fgetxattr)

#define __NR_listxattr 11
__SYSCALL(__NR_listxattr, sys_listxattr)

#define __NR_llistxattr 12

Answer 1

I don't have a definite answer, but it's not uncommon for redundant files to exist when devs try to shift from old mechanisms to newer ones. Your case here looks quite similar.

If you checkout the 3.4 kernel, you will find that both arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_32.h and arch/x86/include/asm/unistd_64.h are gone. Instead, they are generated using arch/x86/syscalls.

Checkout the latest kernel (3.4.2 stable works for me), and do a "git log --stat arch/x86/include/asm", search for unistd_64.h or unistd_32.h or unistd.h.

I found the following commit might be interesting to you. commit 303395ac3bf3e2cb488435537d416bc840438fcb

I've never touched syscalls before, so I'd rather not say too much. git log is usually how I sort out confusing files. You can also get into makefiles if you are good at it. (I am not, so I rely on git log. )