Linus Torvalds in the Linux kernel 5.8 branch style guide recommendations. The third draft was accepted text on the use of inclusive terminology, which was approved by 21 prominent kernel developers, including members of the Linux Foundation Technical Committee. A request was sent to Linus to include changes in kernel 5.9, but he felt there was no reason to wait for the next window for changes and accepted the new document into branch 5.8.
The third version of the text on inclusive terminology was shortened compared to (the file containing a discussion on the importance of inclusivity and explanations of why problematic terms should be avoided, was removed). Only changes were retained in the document defining the coding style. Developers are discouraged from using the terms ‘master / slave’ and ‘blacklist / whitelist’, as well as the word ‘slave’ separately. These recommendations only apply to new usage of these terms. Existing mentions of these words in the kernel will remain untouched.
Additionally, the use of the highlighted terms in new code is permitted if it is required to maintain the user-space API and ABI, as well as when updating code to support existing hardware or protocols, where specifications mandate the use of these terms. When creating implementations based on new specifications, it is recommended, where possible, to align the terminology with the standard coding practices for the Linux kernel.
The words ‘blacklist/whitelist’ are recommended to be replaced with
‘denylist / allowlist’ or ‘blocklist / passlist’, and instead of the words ‘master / slave’, the following alternatives are proposed:
- ‘{primary,main} / {secondary,replica,subordinate}’,
- ‘{initiator,requester} / {target,responder}’,
- ‘{controller,host} / {device,worker,proxy}’,
- ‘leader / follower’,
- ‘director / performer’.
The changes were agreed upon (Acked-by):
- Randy Dunlap
- Dave Airlie
- SeongJae Park
- Christian Brauner
- James Bottomley
- Daniel Vetter
- Andy Lutomirski
- Laura Abbott
- Gustavo A. R. Silva
The changes were reviewed (Reviewed-by):
- Matthias Brugger
- Mark Brown
The changes were signed off (Signed-off-by):
- Stephen Hemminger
- Theodore Ts’o
- Shuah Khan
- Dan Carpenter
- Kees Cook
- Olof Johansson
- Jonathan Corbet
- Chris Mason
- Greg Kroah-Hartman
- Dan Williams
Note: The developers of the Rust language have accepted , replacing the code "whitelist" with "allowlist". This change does not affect user-accessible options and constructs of the language and concerns only internal components.
Source: opennet.ru
