Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: Kernel interface changes (was Re: cdrecord problems on | Date | Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:47:18 -0500 | From | "Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH" <> |
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In message <199902041824.NAA32341@cutter-john.MIT.EDU>, Monty writes: +----- | could pull it off in reality). And despite Derek generally agreeing | with me, he applied my argument far beyond what I intended to address. +--->8
Derek's got a worse problem than you do, since he has to deal with the kernel module interface. As do I, being that I have to support his work in a production environment; if he has problems delivering because the kernel module interface broke *again*, I can't deploy no matter how many people need the new kernel. ---And it probably does affect you, to the extent that if linux-afs doesn't work on a new kernel you can't deploy it either. Yes, there's Arla, but having to rebuild it for each new minor kernel rev that comes down the pike is only slightly better --- and not even that if it's on a system that has key parts of its userspace on AFS ("the kerberos includes and libs aren't important enough to force them to be local", aargh! I'm still putting 2.[12].x Arla machines back together...).
By and large the system call interface has been reasonably well behaved, with notable exceptions in the area of ioctls --- and some syscalls, e.g. it seems a change to initgroups in 2.2 broke Arla's PAGs. The module interface is a serious problem, however, and the two extant workarounds (Arla's source availability and Coda being included in the standard kernel) each have their own attendant problems.
-- brandon s. allbery [os/2][linux][solaris][japh] allbery@kf8nh.apk.net system administrator [WAY too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering KF8NH We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.
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