为什么在“ set_user_nice”中将nice定义为long

Question

我是一名学习操作系统的学生。当我阅读set_user_nice的源代码时，发现nice被定义为long。但是我了解到nice的范围是-20 ~ 19。因此，为什么不将nice定义为int以便在RAM中节省更多空间呢？ 这与x86或x64系统有关吗？

这是源代码(./kernel/sched/core.c)

void set_user_nice(struct task_struct *p, long nice)
{
    bool queued, running;
    int old_prio, delta;
    struct rq_flags rf;
    struct rq *rq;

    if (task_nice(p) == nice || nice < MIN_NICE || nice > MAX_NICE)
        return;
    /*
     * We have to be careful, if called from sys_setpriority(),
     * the task might be in the middle of scheduling on another CPU.
     */
    rq = task_rq_lock(p, &rf);
    /*
     * The RT priorities are set via sched_setscheduler(), but we still
     * allow the 'normal' nice value to be set - but as expected
     * it wont have any effect on scheduling until the task is
     * SCHED_DEADLINE, SCHED_FIFO or SCHED_RR:
     */
    if (task_has_dl_policy(p) || task_has_rt_policy(p)) {
        p->static_prio = NICE_TO_PRIO(nice);
        goto out_unlock;
    }
    queued = task_on_rq_queued(p);
    running = task_current(rq, p);
    if (queued)
        dequeue_task(rq, p, DEQUEUE_SAVE);
    if (running)
        put_prev_task(rq, p);

    p->static_prio = NICE_TO_PRIO(nice);
    set_load_weight(p);
    old_prio = p->prio;
    p->prio = effective_prio(p);
    delta = p->prio - old_prio;

    if (queued) {
        enqueue_task(rq, p, ENQUEUE_RESTORE);
        /*
         * If the task increased its priority or is running and
         * lowered its priority, then reschedule its CPU:
         */
        if (delta < 0 || (delta > 0 && task_running(rq, p)))
            resched_curr(rq);
    }
    if (running)
        set_curr_task(rq, p);
out_unlock:
    task_rq_unlock(rq, p, &rf);
}