Comment by alpn
15 hours ago
For anyone wondering: AF_ALG is a Linux socket interface that exposes the kernel’s crypto API via file descriptors, using normal read(2)/write(2) calls for hashing and encryption.
15 hours ago
For anyone wondering: AF_ALG is a Linux socket interface that exposes the kernel’s crypto API via file descriptors, using normal read(2)/write(2) calls for hashing and encryption.
I wonder can the kernel just remove it and distros put on a compatiability layer.
It's already a configurable option in the kernel which can be fully disabled by distros if they wanted to provide their own compatibility layer, or just not ship any software that has a hard dependency on it.
I always use only custom compiled kernels on my computers, where I enable only the configuration options that I really need.
So the options related to AF_ALG have always been disabled, because I have not encountered an application that needs them, among those that I use.
Unfortunately the Linux distributions must enable in their default configuration most options, because they cannot predict what their users will need.