From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail.lixom.net (lixom.net [66.141.50.11]) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4CAC467B59 for ; Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:10:22 +1000 (EST) Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:05:24 -0500 To: James K Lewis Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/4]: powerpc/cell spidernet ethtool -i version number info. Message-ID: <20060815190524.GW6603@pb15.lixom.net> References: <20060811180013.GB6550@pb15.lixom.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: From: Olof Johansson Cc: Arnd Bergmann , Jens Osterkamp , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, Olof Johansson List-Id: Linux on PowerPC Developers Mail List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , On Fri, Aug 11, 2006 at 01:50:19PM -0500, James K Lewis wrote: > Hi Olof, > > There are several reasons why an Ethernet driver should have an up to > date version number: > > 1. Customers like to see they are really getting a new version. > > 2. It makes it easier for support personnel (me in this case) to see which > driver they have. Sure, sometimes I can talk them thru doing a "sum" on > the .ko and all that, but why not just use the version number? That's what > it is for. And no, you can't just assume they have the version that came > with the kernel they are running. It doesn't work that way. > > 3. It makes bug reporting easier. > > 4. I have already run into too many problems and wasted too much time > working with drivers when the number was NOT getting updated. Thanks for the info, Jim. Sounds like it's most useful if a customer (or distro) takes the driver out of the tree and run it with a different kernel, i.e. when kernel and driver versions no longer go together. Makes sense. -Olof