Ioctl size mask

[Shay Deloya <shay@jungo.com>]

Hi all,

On asm-mips/ioctl.h , there is a mask on the size transfered to the ioctl , 
e.g. : when implementing an ioctl that handles IO , the max size the 
supported in mips is 0xff  as defined in the code below: 


#define _IOWR(type,nr,size)                     
        _IOC(_IOC_READ|_IOC_WRITE,(type),(nr),sizeof(size))                     
     


and _IOC uses size in this way:

(((size) & _IOC_SLMASK) << _IOC_SIZESHIFT))           // (_IOC_SLMMASK = 0xff)


The limited size causes problems on drivers that use size mask to their 
needs, while officialy the allowed limit is 2^13 ( 8kB) by definition .

Does anyone know the reason for this masking and limit  ? 

Thanks,
Shay Deloya
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