Messages in this thread | ![/](/images/icornerl.gif) | | Date | Sun, 22 Aug 1999 23:02:49 +0200 | From | Florian Lohoff <> | Subject | Re: Huge patches such as ISDN |
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On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 04:15:52AM -0700, M Carling wrote: > I've been thinking about the huge ISDN patch for a few weeks now. > > I agree completely with Linus that huge patches should not be accepted at > feature freeze time. As Linus has pointed out, they cannot be properly > reviewed in the short time before the kernel is declared "stable". On the > other hand, the work that the ISDN developers have done should make it > into the tree. Asking them to submit small patches has been futile in the > past and I don't see any reason to believe this will change. > > I believe the best time to roll in the huge ISDN patch would be 2.5.1. > This allows the most time for peer review before it makes it into a > "stable" kernel. Users who need it sooner can continue to apply the patch > themselves, as they do now. > > Adding a huge patch now to 2.3 risks delaying 2.4. It also jeopardizes the > stability of 2.4. Either of these suffice, IMO, to justify postponing a > huge patch updating feature that is used by relatively few people (most of > whom probably compile their own kernels) until 2.5.1.
I think the isdn coded itself is quite isolated from the rest of the kernel so i think the isdn4linux guys should know which CVS snapshot is stable enough to put in the kernel even before 2.4.
BUT: I see the problem that over the past years everybody (including me) got used to just "get-current-cvs-snapshot-and-move-into-kernel-and-hope-it- will-compile" strategy. So will most of the "more-kernel-oriented" persons do even if the isdn code is in the kernel, that means that there will no "big user base" to help debug the code.
BTW: While also thinking on the ISDN past, present and future and more and more think a fork (its GPL - do what you like) will do only good to the development as it did for the gcc.
Flo -- Florian Lohoff flo@rfc822.org +49-5241-470566 Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't have all three). (RFC 1925)
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