Re: RE : 2.6.6-rc3-mm2 : REGPARAM forced => no external module with some object code only

Eric Valette
2004-05-06T13:06:09Z

Zephaniah E. Hull wrote:
> On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 01:18:09PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
>
>>Eric Valette <eric.valette@free.fr> wrote:
>>
>>>The Changelog says nothing really important but forcing REGPARAM is
>>> rather important : it breaks any external module using object only code
>>> that calls a kernel function.
>>
>>This is why we should remove the option - to reduce the number of ways in
>>which the kernel might have been built. Yes, there will be a bit of
>>transition pain while these people catch up.
>
>
> Any guess on when REGPARAM and 4KSTACKS will end up in Linus' tree?
> (Of interest because people may not consider it that important until
> they know it really is going to bite them.)

Well, may I suggest that the impact on end users is absolutely not the
same :
- 4KSTACKS only bites people that use badly written drivers allocating
a lot of local variables on the stack (Nvidia, ...) and the availiable
stack using this config is (from what I've read on this list) roughly
equivalent to what is availiable in 2.4 series...
- REGPARAM kills any driver whith object only file containing system calls,

Concerning the number of ways the kernel is compiled, I think that the
number of GCC version produce even more debugging path than theses
options. I really wonder if this is not a tactical game to push hardware
manufacturer. But beware it could strike back because some supplier may
just give up if they have to work on their driver even on stable series...

--
__
/ ` Eric Valette
/-- __ o _. 6 rue Paul Le Flem
(___, / (_(_(__ 35740 Pace

Tel: +33 (0)2 99 85 26 76 Fax: +33 (0)2 99 85 26 76
E-mail: eric.valette@free.fr