Re: mdadm minimum kernel version requirements?

[Mariusz Tkaczyk <mariusz.tkaczyk@linux.intel.com>]

On Tue, 11 Apr 2023 07:54:04 +1000
"NeilBrown" <neilb@suse.de> wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Apr 2023, Jes Sorensen wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I bumped the minimum kernel version required for mdadm to 2.6.32.
> > 
> > Should we drop support for anything prior to 3.10 at this point, since
> > RHEL7 is 3.10 based and SLES12 seems to be 3.12 based.
> > 
> > Thoughts?  
> 
> When you talk about changing the required kernel version, I would find
> it helpful if you at least mention what actual kernel features you now
> want to depend on - at least the more significant ones.
> 
> Aside from features, I'd rather think about how old the kernel is.
> 2.6.32 is over 13 years old.
> 3.10 is very nearly 10 years old.
> If there is something significant that landed in 3.10 that we want to
> depend on, then requiring that seems perfectly reasonable.
> 
> I think the oldest SLE kernel that you might care about would be 4.12
> (SLE12-SP5 - nearly 6 years old).  Anyone using an older SLE release
> values stability over new functionality and is not going to be trialling
> a new mdadm.
> 
> Thanks,
> NeilBrown

Agree with Neil. I have no strong recommendation. I'm not aware significant
feature that landed recently. I think that any kernel released around 5 ago
will be applicable.

Thanks,
Marusz