Re: [PATCH] x86: Start removing X86_X32_ABI

From: H. Peter Anvin

Date: Tue May 26 2026 - 11:57:47 EST


On May 26, 2026 3:40:51 AM PDT, Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>On 2026-05-23 14:43:52 [-0700], H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> However, we can not recycle the syscall numbers. The x32 flag in the
>> syscall number was advisory originally; it was introduced late in the
>> game to work around a design bug in the input subsystem (*).
>
>If x32 is removed/ not supported why can't the 32/64 bit ABI use syscall
>numbers 512+? It is an ELF32 with EM_X86_64 which should be rejected.
>Shouldn't this free the space because there are no users anymore?
>
>> -hpa
>
>Sebastian

No, because you don't want the same system call number to have different meaning on different kernels, potentially succeed with totally the wrong meaning.