Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 29 Jan 2002 17:33:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 29 Jan 2002 17:33:03 -0500 Received: from ns.suse.de ([213.95.15.193]:14095 "HELO Cantor.suse.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Tue, 29 Jan 2002 17:31:51 -0500 Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 23:31:50 +0100 From: Andi Kleen To: adilger@turbolabs.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: A modest proposal -- We need a patch penguin Message-ID: <20020129233150.D12339@wotan.suse.de> In-Reply-To:

<20020129152426.Z763@lynx.adilger.int> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20020129152426.Z763@lynx.adilger.int> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.22.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 03:24:26PM -0700, Andreas Dilger wrote: > On Jan 29, 2002 22:56 +0100, Andi Kleen wrote: > > Alan Cox writes: > > > Lots of the stuff getting missed is tiny little fixes, obvious 3 or 4 > > > liners. The big stuff is not the problem most times. > > > > "Most times". For example the EA patches have badly failed so far, just > > because Linus ignored all patches to add sys call numbers for a repeatedly > > discussed and stable API and nobody else can add syscall numbers on i386. > > But at times, keeping things external to the kernel for a good while isn't > a bad thing either. Basically, once code is part of the kernel, the API > is much harder to change than if it was always an optional patch. > > For example, the EA patches have matured a lot in the time that they have > been external to the kernel (i.e. the move towards a common API with ext2 > and XFS). Even so, the ext2 shared EA on-disk representation leaves a The problem is that there are already 5-6 different incompatible system calls with either different numbers or different semantics in significant deployment in the wild. EA/ACLs is an important feature for samba servers so they are rather popular. While it's IMHO ok to do limited testing in private the critical threshold where incompatible system call ABIs are just a big problem for linux has long been surpassed. One of the success linux/i386 had in the past was to maintain a very stable kernel ABI, but at least in the EA space this archivement is currently getting undermined badly. -Andi - 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/