Crossposted from https://lemmy.cafe/post/28218826

While the Linux kernel has inclusive terminology guidelines for the past five years to replace phrases like master/slave and blacklist/whitelist, there has surprisingly been a “genocide” function within the kernel that was questioned when it was first submitted for inclusion but now removed in Linux 6.19.

Introduced to the Linux kernel back in 2023 was the d_genocide() function as part of various dcache updates to the kernel. The genocide name was questioned when the patches were first posted by longtime Linux developer Al Viro

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    58·
    4 days ago

    Yeah I don’t see this as an issue

    Usiy the word to convey a certain meaning or intent doesn’t mean you condone it, it doesn’t mean I have Hitler posters on the wall.

    Same as master/slave; I don’t have a dungeon filled with human beings that have to do everything I say. I do have a database setup with a master and multiple slaves. I don’t condone slavery btw, one would think that is obvious

    Want more? How about male/female plugs? Need to van those words too now because somehow that is sexist? Am I excluding transgender people for not having a trans plug? Should we rename those to… I do t even know! We call them that because it makes sense, one goes inside the other, and maybe, juuuuust maybe we shouldn’t read too much into it?

    How about killing all my children! Oh shit, I am an insane mass murderer now! Worse? How about forking a child process? Ooooh shiiiiit, now I am a pedophile! Except that, yeah, no, all that too are just words we use to easily explain relationships between processes on computers, and how we duplicate processes or end them, and we use those words because they make intuitive sense. But, I guess that too soon willl be an issue.

    I can’t wait for the kill command to be renamed to “snuggle” or something.

    • justme@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      22·
      4 days ago

      Most astonishing for me, that it’s still called Master bedroom and bathroom, which has that direct origin. The software example on the other hand are just fitting words for the interaction of electronic devices or software pieces…

      • who@feddit.orgEnglish
        4·
        4 days ago

        Most astonishing for me, that it’s still called Master bedroom and bathroom, which has that direct origin.

        The word master does not originate from slavery. If you study the etymology, you’ll also find that it significantly predates slave, and has more than a few meanings that are not even remotely related to slavery.

        • stickly@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          4 days ago

          IIRC master was the normal ass English word for your superior in any type of subservient role (employees, servants, indentured, school children, etc…). In the “Master Bedroom” instance, master makes sense as the title of a household patriarch.

          As soon as they started forcing non-whites into new world chattel slavery, all tiers of white classes suddenly thought it was degrading to use the same word they forced on the lesser races. This is where English started adapting new words for the old usage of master, such as boss from the Dutch baas.

          If anything, refusing to use master in any context is far more racist than normal usage. You’re perpetuating the idea that a word’s use by slaves automatically (and retroactively) sullies it for all time.