Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754004Ab1FXVKt (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:10:49 -0400 Received: from einhorn.in-berlin.de ([192.109.42.8]:38543 "EHLO einhorn.in-berlin.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752761Ab1FXVKq convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:10:46 -0400 X-Envelope-From: stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:10:28 +0200 From: Stefan Richter To: Devin Heitmueller Cc: Mauro Carvalho Chehab , Hans Verkuil , Jesper Juhl , LKML , trivial@kernel.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org, ceph-devel@vger.kernel.org, Sage Weil Subject: Re: [RFC] Don't use linux/version.h anymore to indicate a per-driver version - Was: Re: [PATCH 03/37] Remove unneeded version.h includes from include/ Message-ID: <20110624231028.7f03dcae@stein> In-Reply-To: References: <4E04912A.4090305@infradead.org> <201106241554.10751.hverkuil@xs4all.nl> <4E04A122.2080002@infradead.org> <20110624203404.7a3f6f6a@stein> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.8 (GTK+ 2.22.1; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1351 Lines: 29 On Jun 24 Devin Heitmueller wrote: > Really, this is all about applications being able to jam a hack into > their code that translates to "don't call this ioctl() with some > particular argument if it's driver W less than version X, because the > driver had a bug that is likely to panic the guy's PC". Sure, it's a > crummy solution, but at this point it's the best that we have got. The second best. The best that we have got is that the user runs a fixed kernel. Anyway; if this is the only purpose that this interface version¹ serves, then Mauro's subsystem-centralized solution has the benefit that it eliminates mistakes due to oversight by individual driver authors. Especially because the kind of implementation behavior changes that are tracked by this type of version datum are sometimes just discovered or documented in hindsight. On the other hand, Mauro's solution is redundant to the uname(2) syscall. ¹) Yes, it is still an ABI version, nothing less. With all its backwards and forwards compatibility ramifications. -- Stefan Richter -=====-==-== -==- ==--- http://arcgraph.de/sr/ -- 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/