Re: [PATCH RFC] block - ataflop.c: fix breakage introduced at blk-mq refactoring

Jens Axboe
2021-10-18T23:29:02Z

On 10/18/21 5:17 PM, Finn Thain wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Oct 2021, Jens Axboe wrote:
>
>>> It is much more difficult to report regressions than it is to use a
>>> workaround (i.e. boot a known good kernel). And I have plenty of
>>> sympathy for end-users who may assume that the people and corporations
>>> who create the breakage will take responsibility for fixing it.
>>
>> We're talking about a floppy driver here, and one for ATARI no less.
>> It's not much of a leap of faith to assume that
>>
>> a) those users are more savvy than the average computer user, as they
>> have to compile their own kernels anyway.
>>
>> b) that there are essentially zero of them left. The number is clearly
>> different from zero, but I doubt by much.
>>
>
> Well, that assumption is as dangerous as any. The floppy interface is
> still important even if most of the old mechanisms have been replaced.
>
> http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
> https://amigastore.eu/en/220-sd-floppy-emulator-rev-c.html
> https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/
>
>> Hence it would stand to reason that if someone was indeed in the group
>> of ATARI floppy users that they would know how to report a bug.
>
> Yes, it would if the premise was valid. But the premise is just a flawed
> assumption.

Oh please, can we skip the empty words, this is tiresome and
unproductive. Since you apparently have a much better grasp on this than
I do, answer me this:

1) How many users of ataflop are there?

2) How big of a subset of that group are capable of figuring out where
to send a bug report?

By your reasoning, any bug would go unreported for years, no matter how
big the user group is. That is patently false. It's most commonly a
combination of how hard it is to hit, and how many can potentially hit
it. Yes, some people will work around a bug, but others will not. Hence
a subset of people that hit it will report it. Decades of bug reports
have proven this to be true on my end.

Nobody has reported the ataflop issue in 3 years. Either these people
never upgrade (which may be true), or none of them are using ataflop.
It's as simple as that.

--
Jens Axboe