From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from AM1EHSOBE004.bigfish.com (am1ehsobe004.messaging.microsoft.com [213.199.154.207]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mail.global.frontbridge.com", Issuer "Cybertrust SureServer Standard Validation CA" (verified OK)) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 381BBB6F80 for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:40:27 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <4DF12FAD.9010101@freescale.com> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2011 15:40:13 -0500 From: Timur Tabi MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Greg KH Subject: Re: [PATCH 7/7] [v5] drivers/virt: introduce Freescale hypervisor management driver References: <1307646794-26374-1-git-send-email-timur@freescale.com> <201106092213.13755.arnd@arndb.de> <4DF12A94.6070605@freescale.com> <20110609203117.GB14235@kroah.com> In-Reply-To: <20110609203117.GB14235@kroah.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Cc: Arnd Bergmann , konrad.wilk@oracle.com, kumar.gala@freescale.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, cmetcalf@tilera.com, akpm@kernel.org, linux-console@vger.kernel.org, virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org, linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk List-Id: Linux on PowerPC Developers Mail List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Greg KH wrote: > Why is binary compatibility important? Isn't this a brand new driver > for a brand new system? What userspace tools are out there in the wild > for such a thing? This driver (and the hypervisor it talks to, plus the apps, etc) has been in internal development for three years. There hasn't been a lot of effort internally to release this software upstream until recently. I personally have been complaining about it for quite some time, but I have no control over our internal release process. Even when the hardware has been announced and available for purchase, the BSP is sometimes only available under NDA. Eventually, everything is publicly released, and most of the code is pushed upstream, but it's a long and painful struggle at times. My concern has been dealing with the headaches of bug reports from customers, etc as they upgrade their kernel but not their apps, and then wonder why nothing works. But as Arnd pointed out, it really isn't as big of deal as I make it out to be. I can maintain compatibility internally. I blame my allergy medicine. -- Timur Tabi Linux kernel developer at Freescale