RE: [PATCH, RFC] MIPS: Implement the getcontext API

["David VomLehn (dvomlehn)" <dvomlehn@cisco.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph Myers [mailto:joseph@codesourcery.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 1:53 PM
> To: Ralf Baechle
> Cc: David VomLehn (dvomlehn); David Daney; Maciej W. Rozycki; 
> linux-mips@linux-mips.org; libc-ports@sourceware.org; Maciej 
> W. Rozycki; Richard Sandiford
> Subject: Re: [PATCH, RFC] MIPS: Implement the getcontext API
> 
> On Thu, 5 Mar 2009, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> 
> > stillborn EABI and NUBI variants.  Add various Linux and 
> GNU specific
> > enhancements and deviations from the previously mentioned 
> documents for
> > example for TLS.  Frequently the documentation really is 
> just in the code,
> > a mailing list archive or in the back of somebody's brain ...
> 
> (Although it took a while for the documentation to catch up with the 
> implementation and changes made in the course of patch 
> review, as far as I 
> know <http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/NPTL> is now an accurate 
> description 
> of TLS for MIPS.)
> 
> > Somebody could probably earn a medal by writing a single 
> consolidated
> > and readable piece of documentation.
> 
> Anyone seriously wishing to produce a complete and current and 
> copyright-clean description of what the MIPS ABIs now are 
> might wish to 
> note that a similar project for (32-bit) Power Architecture 
> has been going 
> on since late 2006 and we still haven't quite got to the point of 
> releasing a public review draft.  There is a lot of work involved.

I spent two years as Chair of the MIPS ABI Group Technical Committee
working on the MIPS psABI and I can attest to how much work it is.
Still, if there were enough of people involved from the kernel,
compiler/library, and appropriate utility communities willing to try to
pull things together, I could see spending time on it.