Re: Change in kernel debian packages between -rc2 and -rc3

Theodore Ts'o
2023-03-26T12:11:32Z

On Sun, Mar 26, 2023 at 12:39:44PM +0900, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
>
> I am afraid you are completely misunderstanding the two versions,
> the ABI version and the package version.
>
> They do not need to match. Actually, they do not match.
>
> See real Debian (or Ubuntu) systems.
>
> `uname -r` returns '5.10.0-21-amd64'.
> This is what they call the ABI version, and
> this is contained as a part of the package name,
> 'linux-image-5.10.0-21-amd64'

That may be a convention that Debian uses, but I'll point out that
trying to use this as an ABI version when people are using different
.config's is not going to end well. That's because many different
Kernel configurations will end up making incompatible changes to the
ABI. and only works if you are ***super*** careful about not making
any kind of changes (e.g., the number of CPU's, adding or changing
various cgroup controllers, all of which will make incompatible kernel
ABI changes.)

This is "Stable ABI nonsense" is well, nonsense.

> It was _not_ reflected in the package version.
> This is also correct since the package version
> is not meant to reflect such user configuration
> as CONFIG_LOCALVERSION.

Citation, please? Does the Debian system work in that particular way?

In any case, it's an incompatible regression made during rc2 and rc3,
which I think is at the very least, unfortunate.

- Ted