Message-ID: <47D027B5.5030503@zytor.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:19:49 -0800
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
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To: Robert Dewar <dewar@adacore.com>
CC: "H.J. Lu" <hjl.tools@gmail.com>, Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com>,
       NightStrike <nightstrike@gmail.com>,
       Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com>,
       Chris Lattner <clattner@apple.com>, Michael Matz <matz@suse.de>,
       Richard Guenther <richard.guenther@gmail.com>,
       Joe Buck <Joe.Buck@synopsys.com>, Jan Hubicka <hubicka@ucw.cz>,
       Aurelien Jarno <aurelien@aurel32.net>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
       gcc@gcc.gnu.org
Subject: Re: RELEASE BLOCKER: Linux doesn't follow x86/x86-64 ABI wrt direction
 flag
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Robert Dewar wrote:
> H.J. Lu wrote:
> 
>> So that is the bug in the Linux kernel. Since fixing kernel is much 
>> easier
>> than providing a workaround in compilers, I think kernel should be fixed
>> and no need for icc/gcc fix.
> 
> Fixing a bug in the Linux kernel is not "much easier". You are taking
> a purely engineering viewpoint, but life is not like that. There are
> lots of copies of Linux kernels around and in use. The issue is not
> fixing the kernel per se, it is propagating that change to all
> Linux kernels in use -- THAT'S another matter entirely, and is
> far far more difficult than making sure that a kernel fix is
> qualified and widely proopagated.
> 

Not really, it's just a matter of time.  Typical distro cycles are on 
the order of 3 years.

	-hpa
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