Re: [PATCH] x86 NUMA panic compile error

Ingo Molnar
2006-05-15T18:14:23Z

* Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> wrote:

> > i still strongly oppose the original Andi hack... numerous reasons were
> > given not to apply it (it's nice to simulate/trigger rarer features on
> > mainstream hardware too, and this ability to boot NUMA on my flat x86
> > testbox found at least one other NUMA bug already). Furthermore, the
> > crash i reported was fixed by the NUMA patchset. Andrew, please drop:
>
> The problem is that it's not regularly used on a wide range of boxes
> so it will eventually break again. We had this cycle several times
> already.

so it will find new bugs. Since you wrote that patch the ability to try
numa on 'flat' x86 hardware has found two bugs, one of which (the zone
alignment thing) could very well affect non-obsolete hardware too.

Andi, triggering bugs as widely as possible is the _whole point_ of QA
and diversity of testing! Do you disable the compilation of the floppy
driver just because it's obsolete hardware? Will you remove NUMA
emulation from x86_64 just because it regularly broke in the past?

Fact is, the more hardware a given feature can be tried on, the better
tested that feature becomes. I find it quite extreme that this point has
to even be argued...

Ingo