Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262994AbVDLWKN (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Apr 2005 18:10:13 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262986AbVDLWGQ (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Apr 2005 18:06:16 -0400 Received: from khc.piap.pl ([195.187.100.11]:3076 "EHLO khc.piap.pl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262994AbVDLWEJ (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Apr 2005 18:04:09 -0400 To: Sensei Cc: Adrian Bunk , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [INFO] Kernel strict versioning References: <4256C89C.4090207@tin.it> <20050408190500.GF15688@stusta.de> <425B1E3F.5080202@tin.it> <20050412015018.GA3828@stusta.de> <425B3864.8050401@tin.it> <425C03D6.2070107@tin.it> From: Krzysztof Halasa Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:04:06 +0200 In-Reply-To: <425C03D6.2070107@tin.it> (Franco's message of "Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:22:30 -0500") Message-ID: 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: 2051 Lines: 52 "Franco \"Sensei\"" writes: > What about making extensive use of modules? If everything (acceptable) > is built on modules, can you still have abi, can you still change > modules and api implementation without breaking anything? Yes, but you still can't change .config. You enable SMP, your binary compatibility is history. You _have_to_ be able to enable SMP and _you_have_ to be able to disable it. The following kernel packages are parts of Fedora Core 3: kernel-2.6.9-1.667.i586.rpm kernel-2.6.9-1.667.i686.rpm kernel-smp-2.6.9-1.667.i586.rpm kernel-smp-2.6.9-1.667.i686.rpm 4 of them, each with a different ABI. And this is all the same kernel major-minor-version-subversion and the same compiler - only the settings differ. > I'm really curious about it. How abi can be made actual, and how would > it be if we had a completely modular kernel (not micro, but something > alike, modular in kernel-space, not in user-space). Being modular has nothing to do with the "problem" (except it's probably required, but Linux _is_ modular for some time now). > Quite the same, yes. You can still have different kernels of course! Not "can". You have to. You don't want the kernel running on your dual Athlon MP to power your old Pentium MMX test machine. The modules are irrelevant. > By the way, another stupid curiosity is why /lib/modules instead of > /boot? You can have it in /boot. In fact, it's not a kernel issue. > Because boot can be a partition and not be mounted? Actually, because boot can be a small partition, and may lack support for, say, long filenames. Actually, I put the kernels in /lib/modules/* as well. I have no /boot file systems and I like the idea of rm -rf /lib/modules/something deleting all files related to a particular kernel. -- Krzysztof Halasa - 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/