Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750800AbWJDTAF (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Oct 2006 15:00:05 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750803AbWJDTAE (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Oct 2006 15:00:04 -0400 Received: from gundega.hpl.hp.com ([192.6.19.190]:21711 "EHLO gundega.hpl.hp.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750800AbWJDTAA (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Oct 2006 15:00:00 -0400 Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 11:59:03 -0700 To: Linus Torvalds Cc: "John W. Linville" , Jeff Garzik , Lee Revell , Alessandro Suardi , Norbert Preining , Andrew Morton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, johannes@sipsolutions.net Subject: Re: wpa supplicant/ipw3945, ESSID last char missing Message-ID: <20061004185903.GA4386@bougret.hpl.hp.com> Reply-To: jt@hpl.hp.com References: <1159890876.20801.65.camel@mindpipe> <20061003180543.GD23912@tuxdriver.com> <4522A9BE.9000805@garzik.org> <20061003183849.GA17635@bougret.hpl.hp.com> <4522B311.7070905@garzik.org> <20061003214038.GE23912@tuxdriver.com> <20061004181032.GA4272@bougret.hpl.hp.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Organisation: HP Labs Palo Alto Address: HP Labs, 1U-17, 1501 Page Mill road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. E-mail: jt@hpl.hp.com User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i From: Jean Tourrilhes X-HPL-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-HPL-MailScanner-From: jt@hpl.hp.com Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1753 Lines: 43 On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 11:38:19AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > On Wed, 4 Oct 2006, Jean Tourrilhes wrote: > > > > You can't froze kernel userspace API forever. That is simply > > not workable > > Stop arguing this way. > > It's not what we have ever done. We've _extended_ the API. But we don't > break old ones. Old APIs get deprecated, and people are forced to the new API, which is exactly the same as far as userspace is concerned. This transition is exactly the same as what you propose, both kernel API coexist for some time, except it happens in userspace instead of in kernel, which is an implementation detail. So, my question is when can I remove the old ESSID API. > I don't even see why you argue. Even the people directly involved with > this thing seem to say that it should have some simple translation layer > and do the internal format thing. We've had major subsystem that do that, > and I don't see why you think wireless is so different, and so special in > this respect. The Wireless people (Jouni, Dan) decided to change the *userspace* API. We could translate the new *userspace* API to the old kernel API, but I don't see the point. > If you need to break something, you create a new interface, and try to > translate between the two, and maybe you deprecate the old one so that it > can be removed once it's not in use any more. That's exactly what it hinges on. What is your criteria for removing the old ESSID API. My understanding was 6 months. Jean - 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/