[cip-dev] Kernel feature support - filesystems and networking

[ben.hutchings@codethink.co.uk (Ben Hutchings)]

I apologise for the long delay in responding to the kernel config files
I was given.  Here's a first list of features I would like to *not*
support.  I expect to be able to send additional lists soon.  Let me
know if you really need some of the features listed below, and if you
have any ideas about how to mitigate the problems I see.

The following features are enabled in some of the configurations I was
sent but seem to be unsupportable over CIP's time scale:

File systems:
- btrfs (CONFIG_BTRFS_FS)
  - Too rapidly changing to backport most fixes
- ceph (CONFIG_CEPH_LIB, CONFIG_CEPH_FS)
  - Complex network protocol which is likely to need many fixes
- cifs (CONFIG_CIFS_FS)
  - Complex network protocol which is likely to need many fixes
- nfs (CONFIG_NFS_FS, CONFIG_NFSD)
  - Complex network protocol which is likely to need many fixes
- ufs (CONFIG_UFS_FS)
  - No work by current maintainer for 7 years
- xfs (CONFIG_XFS_FS)
  - Maintainers unsupportive of backporting fixes

Networking:
- batman-adv (CONFIG_BATMAN_ADV)
  - Rapidly changing
- caif (CONFIG_CAIF)
  - No work by current maintainer for 5 years
- dcb (CONFIG_DCB)
  - No current maintainer
- hsr (CONFIG_HSR)
  - No work by current maintainer for 2 years
- llc2 (CONFIG_LLC2)
  - No work by current maintainer for 7 years
- phonet (CONFIG_PHONET)
  - Dead protocol
- sctp (CONFIG_IP_SCTP)
  - Poor security record
- wimax (CONFIG_WIMAX)
  - Dead protocol
- x25 (CONFIG_X25)
  - Poor security record

I have some doubts about whether these can be supported:

- ntfs (CONFIG_NTFS_FS)
  - Fixes are never marked for stable
- overlayfs (CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS)
  - I found many apparently important bug fixes in later kernel
    versions that have not been backported

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
Software Developer, Codethink Ltd.