[PATCH] pid: change task_struct::pid to read-only

[Oleg Nesterov]

On 12/20, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 08:01:57PM +0100, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> > The only problem is that
> >
> > 	#define ASSIGN_CONST(l, r)      (*(typeof(r) *)&(l) = (r))
> >
> > obviously can't work in this case ;) We need something more clever.
>
> Hmm indeed, C++ has both the const_cast<>() thingy and the template
> system is powerful enough to actually implement const_cast<>() inside
> the language.
>
> But I cannot find anything useful for C. Your attempt to use the rvalue
> type to hopefully obtain a const-less lvalue type is clever, but does
> indeed fail where the rvalue is const too.

Yes.

We can probably do

	#define ASSIGN_CONST(l, r) ({				\
		typeof (l) const r__ = (r);			\
		memcpy((void *)&(l), &(r__), sizeof(l));	\
		(l);						\
	})

gcc can actually avoid a temporary if you do

		ASSIGN_CONST(tsk->pid, leader->pid);

but this doesn't look very nice and assumes __builtin_memcpy().


So, how about

	#define CONST_CAST(type, lval)	\
		(*({					\
			(void)((type *)0 == &(lval));	\
			(type *)&(lval);		\
		}))					\

?

de_thread/copy_process can do

	CONST_CAST(pid_t, tsk->pid) = leader->pid;

and if "type" is wrong we have a warning.

Oleg.