Re: [Pv-drivers] RFC: Network Plugin Architecture (NPA) for vmxnet3

Dmitry Torokhov
2010-05-05T17:35:36Z

On Wednesday 05 May 2010 10:31:20 am Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Wed, May 05, 2010 at 10:29:40AM -0700, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > > We're not going to add any kind of loader for binry blobs into kernel
> > > space, sorry. Don't even bother wasting your time on this.
> >
> > It would not be a binary blob but software properly released under GPL.
> > The current plan is for the shell to enforce GPL requirement on the
> > plugin code, similar to what module loaded does for regular kernel
> > modules.
>
> The mechanism described in the document is loading a binary blob
> coded to an abstract API.

Yes, with the exception that the only body of code that will be
accepted by the shell should be GPL-licensed and thus open and available
for examining. This is not different from having a standard kernel
module that is loaded normally and plugs into a certain subsystem.
The difference is that the binary resides not on guest filesystem
but elsewhere.

>
> That's something entirely different from having normal modules for
> the Virtual Functions, which we already have for various pieces of
> hardware anyway.

--
Dmitry