From: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
To: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/7] KVM: Kernel-based Virtual Machine
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 20:49:36 +0200
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Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org>, Muli Ben-Yehuda <muli@il.ibm.com>,
       linux-kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
       Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>,
       Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
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On Sunday 22 October 2006 20:41, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > Ok, but if you radically change the kernel<->user API, doesn't that mean
> > you have to upgrade in the same way?
>
> No, why? I'd just upgrade the userspace. ?Am I misunderstanding you?

If you change the kernel interface, you also have to change the kernel
itself, at least if you introduce new syscalls.

> > The 32 bit emulation mode in x86_64
> > is actually pretty complete, so it probably boils down to a kernel
> > upgrade for you, without having to touch any of the user space.
> > ?
>
> For me personally, I don't mind. ?I don't know about others.

I'd really love to see your code in get into the mainline kernel,
but I'd consider 32 bit host support an unnecessary burden for
long-term maintenance. Maybe you could maintain the 32 bit version
out of tree as long as there is still interest? I would expect that
at least the point where it works out of the box on x86_64
distros is when it becomes completely obsolete.

	Arnd <><
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