Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1161969AbWKOWOQ (ORCPT ); Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:14:16 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1161970AbWKOWOQ (ORCPT ); Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:14:16 -0500 Received: from hosting.zipcon.net ([209.221.136.3]:55177 "EHLO hosting.zipcon.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1161969AbWKOWOP (ORCPT ); Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:14:15 -0500 Message-ID: <455B9133.9030704@beezmo.com> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:14:11 -0800 From: William D Waddington User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (Windows/20050923) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: [RFCLUE3] flagging kernel interface changes Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - hosting.zipcon.net X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - vger.kernel.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [0 0] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - beezmo.com X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1695 Lines: 45 I tried submitting a patch a while back: "[PATCH] IRQ: ease out-of-tree migration to new irq_handler prototype" to add #define __PT_REGS to include/linux/interrupt.h to flag the change to the new interrupt handler prototype. It wasn't well received :( No big surprise. The #define wasn't my idea and I hadn't submitted a patch before. I wanted to see how the patch procedure worked, and hoped that the flag would be included so I could mod my drivers and move on... What I'm curious about is why flagging kernel/driver interface changes is considered a bad idea. From my point of view as a low-life out-of- tree driver maintainer, #ifdef NEW_INTERFACE #define #endif (w/maybe an #else...) is cleaner and safer than trying to track specific kernel versions in a multi-kernel-version driver. It seems that in some cases, the new interface has been, like HAVE_COMPAT_IOCTL for instance. I don't want to start an argument about "stable_api_nonsense" or the wisdom of out-of-tree drivers. Just curious about the - why - and whether it is indifference or antagonism toward drivers outside the fold. Or ??? Apologies for the long post, and thanks for your time. Bill -- -------------------------------------------- William D Waddington Bainbridge Island, WA, USA william.waddington@beezmo.com -------------------------------------------- "Even bugs...are unexpected signposts on the long road of creativity..." - Ken Burtch - 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/