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From:   Philipp Reisner <philipp.reisner@linbit.com>
Date:   Tue, 29 Mar 2022 17:44:03 +0200
Message-ID: <CADGDV=WN2TFR6dO7ZdiQ2ijPjs+7HSsvk0ZCHsHj6ZG5t-oEdA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: state of drbd in mainline
To:     Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
Cc:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>,
        Lars Ellenberg <lars.ellenberg@linbit.com>,
        drbd-dev@lists.linbit.com, linux-block@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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Jens, my intention is to keep it in-tree, and at some point update it.
Regarding your questions:

[...]

> - Why aren't the drbd maintainers responding to posted patches? They seem
>   to simply be ignored, and I'm left to pickup the trivial ones that look
>   fine to me. In-kernel drbd appears largely unmaintained, and has been for
>   years.

The team here has grown, we are busy. Since you started to pick up the
trivial patches yourself, I thought it is not necessary that I collect them and
send a pull request in merge-window time.

> - Even if out-of-band communication is used for in-kernel users of drbd,
>   that doesn't result in any patches or fixes that should go upstream?

This one:
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-block/patch/20210426163032.3454129-1-christoph.boehmwalder@linbit.com/
(relevant to users that have DRBD on top of md raid)

> - If there's zero activity for in-kernel drbd, all users are using the
>   out-of-tree version?

There are users of the in-tree version, some with huge fleets.
Some do not need the newer out-of-tree DRBD, and the in-tree version is a
lot easier to compile. You need coccinelle for the out-of-tree version,
and that can already be a hindering barrier for some.

> As far as I can tell, drbd upstream is stone cold dead, and has been for
> years. Why shouldn't it just get removed?

Because there are users.

> Is it just bait to get people to use an out-of-tree version?

No.

> --
> Jens Axboe