Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264633AbUD1ELV (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:11:21 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264637AbUD1ELV (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:11:21 -0400 Received: from mail.tpgi.com.au ([203.12.160.57]:34764 "EHLO mail1.tpgi.com.au") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264633AbUD1EKy (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:10:54 -0400 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:00:35 +1000 From: "Nigel Cunningham" To: "Linux Kernel Mailing List" Subject: What does tainting actually mean? Reply-To: ncunningham@linuxmail.org Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: User-Agent: Opera M2/7.50 (Linux, build 663) X-TPG-Antivirus: Passed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1699 Lines: 42 Hi all. I'm probably going to regret this, but seeing the current discussion on binary modules makes me wonder: What does tainting actually mean? What I mean is, how does it help to know that a kernel is tainted? When I'm working on Software Suspend and someone sends me an oops, I don't really care whether it's marked as tainted or not. For all I know, even if it's not tainted, they may have thrown in half a dozen different patches aside from Suspend, any one of which could be playing a role in the appearance of the oops. It doesn't help me to know that the kernel was tainted. It helps me to know what the non-standard additions are (and how the kernel was configured), regardless of whether the additions mark the kernel tainted or not. Of course I realise at the same time that maybe tainting has nothing to do with saying 'This isn't an unmodified tree' and everything to do with saying 'This kernel has had non-GPL code interacting with it'. If that's the case, I don't see the relevance of saying (as Paul did a little while ago): "You deceived maintainers who receive "untainted" bug reports." Indeed, the surrounding lines seem to make it clear that the real issue is not fixing bugs but politics. Thus my question: What does tainting actually mean? Regards, Nigel -- Nigel Cunningham C/- Westminster Presbyterian Church Belconnen 61 Templeton Street, Cook, ACT 2614, Australia. +61 (2) 6251 7727 (wk) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/