The code in drivers/ata/ uses an implementation of inheritance that I have not seen before.  It&#39;s only briefly explained in the header file ( include/linux/libata.h:885):<div><br><div>/*  </div><div> * -&gt;inherits must be the last field and all the preceding</div>
<div> * fields must be pointers.</div><div> */</div></div><div><br></div><div>The structs are then initialized with .inherits assigned first:</div><div><br></div><div>drivers/ata/sata_nv.c:475</div><div><br></div><div><div>
static struct ata_port_operations nv_nf2_ops = {                              </div><div>        .inherits               = &amp;nv_generic_ops,</div><div>        .freeze                 = nv_nf2_freeze,                              </div>
<div>        .thaw                   = nv_nf2_thaw,                                </div><div>};      </div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Is this actually implementing inheritance?  Why do all preceding fields need to be pointers?</div>
<div><br></div><div>As far as I can tell, this style is only found in the ata drivers.  </div><div><br></div><div>Could anyone explain how this works?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>Peter</div>