Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:37:47 -0400 | | From | Bill Davidsen <> | | Subject | Re: Xen is a feature |
Thomas Gleixner wrote: > On Wed, 3 Jun 2009, Bill Davidsen wrote: > >> Thomas Gleixner wrote: >> >>> Aside of the paravirt, which seems to expand through arch/x86 like a >>> hydra, the new patches sprinkle "if (xen_...)" all over the >>> place. These extra xen dependencies are no improvement, they are a >>> royal pain in the ... They are sticky once they got merged simply >>> because the hypervisor relies on them and we need to provide >>> compatibility for a long time. >>> >>> >> Wait, let's not classify something as "no improvement" when you mean "I don't >> need it." >> > > It's not about "I don't need it.". It's about having Xen dependencies > in the code all over the place which make mainatainence harder. I have > to balance the users benefit (xen dom0 support) vs. the impact on > maintainability and the restrictions which are going to be set almost > in stone by merging it. > > >> Let's stick to technical issues, and not deny that there are a number of users >> who really will have expanded capability. The technical points are valid, but >> as a former and probable future xen (CentOS) user, so are the benefits. >> > > Refusing random "if (xen...)" dependencies is a purely technical > decision. I have said more than once that I'm not against merging dom0 > in general, I'm just frightened by the technical impact of a defacto > ABI which we swallow with it. > > I was referring to your "no benefit" comment, I don't dispute the technical issues. I think the idea of moving the hypervisor into the kernel and letting xen folks do the external parts as they please.
> We have enough problems with real silicon and BIOS/ACPI already, why > should we add artifical and _avoidable_ virtual silicon horror ? >
I guess my point wasn't clear, sorry, it's just that I felt as though the features lacking KVM (old/small/BIOS-limited CPUs) might be hidden in the smoke due to the technical issues.
-- Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> Even purely technical things can appear to be magic, if the documentation is obscure enough. For example, PulseAudio is configured by dancing naked around a fire at midnight, shaking a rattle with one hand and a LISP manual with the other, while reciting the GNU manifesto in hexadecimal. The documentation fails to note that you must circle the fire counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
|  |