Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751058AbVJVSA7 (ORCPT ); Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:00:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751063AbVJVSA7 (ORCPT ); Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:00:59 -0400 Received: from [81.2.110.250] ([81.2.110.250]:39086 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751056AbVJVSA6 (ORCPT ); Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:00:58 -0400 Subject: Re: ioctls, etc. (was Re: [PATCH 1/4] sas: add flag for locally attached PHYs) From: Alan Cox To: Christoph Hellwig Cc: Sergey Panov , Stefan Richter , linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, Linux Kernel , Jeff Garzik , Luben Tuikov , andrew.patterson@hp.com, Christoph Hellwig , "Moore, Eric Dean" , jejb@steeleye.com, Linus Torvalds In-Reply-To: <20051022171943.GA7546@infradead.org> References: <4359440E.2050702@pobox.com> <43595275.1000308@adaptec.com> <435959BE.5040101@pobox.com> <43595CA6.9010802@adaptec.com> <43596070.3090902@pobox.com> <43596859.3020801@adaptec.com> <43596F16.7000606@pobox.com> <435A1793.1050805@s5r6.in-berlin.de> <20051022105815.GB3027@infradead.org> <1129994910.6286.21.camel@sipan.sipan.org> <20051022171943.GA7546@infradead.org> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 19:27:55 +0100 Message-Id: <1130005675.15961.37.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1330 Lines: 29 On Sad, 2005-10-22 at 18:19 +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote: > No. Rewriting something from scratch is horrible engineering practice. There I must disagree strongly. There are times when it is the right thing to do because the original is unsalvagable (see drivers/ide). OTOH I do not believe the scsi layer is in this state. Luben, it isn't about layering. Linux does layering and does it strongly but it does not do unneccessary layering. If the layer above is wrong then adapt it step by step without breaking existing stuff (or making sure the existing changes to drivers are clean and testable). That process works. There is very little left of the original "Linux" and most of what is left is the stuff that most needs maintenance (eg floppy.c, tty layer). In time they too will change. Don't go around the scsi layer for something generic, go through it. Going around things or adding ugly hacks is fine (and justified) for a specific single piece of hardware that is somehow brain damaged, its not the right approach for something likely to be mainstream and generic. - 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/