Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1765655AbXF1Vje (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:39:34 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1762346AbXF1Vj0 (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:39:26 -0400 Received: from zeniv.linux.org.uk ([195.92.253.2]:43942 "EHLO ZenIV.linux.org.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1761852AbXF1VjZ (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:39:25 -0400 Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:39:22 +0100 From: Al Viro To: Alan Cox Cc: William D Waddington , Helge Hafting , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Al Boldi Subject: Re: Please release a stable kernel Linux 3.0 Message-ID: <20070628213922.GG21478@ftp.linux.org.uk> References: <4683983E.5020103@aitel.hist.no> <4683D3B0.1040708@beezmo.com> <20070628173051.4a3422c0@the-village.bc.nu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070628173051.4a3422c0@the-village.bc.nu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1734 Lines: 36 On Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 05:30:51PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote: > > My (mild) beef is more like what I take to be Al's point: it feels like > > there is a kind of hostility toward out-of-tree maintainers. Why not > > Some of that comes about because a lot of them are out of tree > maintaining non-free stuff, shipping binary products - often entirely > binary without a Linux or GPL label - until the man in black catches them > and sues them in Germany. Some, but not all, and you know damn well where the rest is coming from (kABI is a four-letter word and anything that smells like a slippery slope towards that in mainline kernel is not a good idea, to put it very mildly). It's really very simple: (1) There are too many exports (2) "should not break any code that uses only exported symbols" is a very strong constraint. Too strong to be feasible. (3) That constraint has become too strong because module authors kept adding exports. (4) Unless the number of exports is trimmed by at least 1--1.5 orders of magnitude, forget about any such promises. (5) Trimming it down is unacceptable for module authors - the same people who'd created that coprostalagmite in the first place and who keep asking for such promises. What can one do? Well, get the code merged or maintain it on your own. If the subset of exports you are using is relatively sane, the latter option will cause you relatively little PITA. If it's not, well, at least it doesn't become a pain in our arses... - 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/