Messages in this thread | | | Date | 6 Feb 2006 23:42:04 -0500 | From | linux@horizon ... | Subject | Re: Linux drivers management |
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> Is there any work in Linux undergoing to separate Linux drivers and the > the main kernel, and manage drivers using a package management system > that only manages kernel drivers and modules? If this can be done, the > kernel maintenance can be simple, and will end-up with a more stable > (less frequent changed) kernel API for drivers, also make every > developers of drivers happy.
Not very seriously. Kernel developers really like the ability to change every user of a kernel programming interface within a single source tree. Breaking it up would make it harder to change the device driver interface when necessary. (It's already hard enough; nobody does it for fun.)
Also, a hardware manufacturer looking for a "stable API" is often really looking for a stable *binary* interface because they want to ship binary-only drivers.
The Linux developers are quite opposed to that, for a variety of excellent reasons I won't bother enumerating. Linus has said he'll (grudgingly) allow it, but won't lift a finger to help. Linux development sailed away from the idea of a stable binary interface years ago, and isn't looking back. - 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/
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