Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262354AbUK3WWx (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:22:53 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262353AbUK3WWx (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:22:53 -0500 Received: from fw.osdl.org ([65.172.181.6]:35200 "EHLO mail.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262361AbUK3WWu (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:22:50 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:22:33 -0800 (PST) From: Linus Torvalds To: Alexandre Oliva cc: Paul Mackerras , Greg KH , David Woodhouse , Matthew Wilcox , David Howells , hch@infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, libc-hacker@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__ In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <19865.1101395592@redhat.com> <20041125165433.GA2849@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <1101406661.8191.9390.camel@hades.cambridge.redhat.com> <20041127032403.GB10536@kroah.com> <16810.24893.747522.656073@cargo.ozlabs.ibm.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1219 Lines: 33 On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, Alexandre Oliva wrote: > > Then maybe this is the fundamental problem. As long as the kernel > doesn't recognize that an ABI is a contract, rather than an > imposition, kernel developers won't care. That's a silly analogy. Worse, it's a very flawed analogy. If you want to use a legal analogy, the ABI is not a contract, it's a public _license_. Why? A contract is something that you cannot change unilaterally. Clearly the kernel _can_ and will change the ABI without asking every existing program for permission. In a license, you can always just _expand_ the license eventually. Maybe you originally licensed for "fly-fishing for trout", and later you can expand that license to say "you can also catch crawfish" without impacting your existing licensees. And exactly as with an ABI, the only thing you can't do is _remove_ rights without getting into trouble. So get your analogies straight. The kernel ABI is _not_ a contract. Linus - 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/