Re: what does a number of "_" mean?

[Robert Love <rml@tech9.net>]

On Mon, 2003-11-03 at 08:17, Shinpei Kato wrote:

> How about types or variables and functions beggining with one "_"
> as _exit()?

Underscores tend to denote internal functions, or ones with a
corresponding functions that are of a "higher level".

There is not any official difference between one and two underscore
proceeded functions, but I guess two underscore functions would tend to
be "more internal" than one underscore functions.

For example, consider foo() and __foo().  foo() might obtain requisite
locks and then call __foo().  The standard interface would be foo(), but
you could call __foo() if you knew you already held the locks or
whatever.

In the case of the _exit_*() functions, those are internal helper
functions called by do_exit().

	Robert Love


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