Re: [RFC/PATCH 1/2] in-kernel sockets API

Chris Friesen
2006-06-14T05:28:53Z

Brice Goglin wrote:

> What about GPL modules that don't want to get merged ? I don't know any
> such module that could use this API. But at least there are some webcam
> drivers that don't seem to want to be merged (I don't know why).

There are valid reasons for GPL code to not be merged into mainline.

I (and I'm sure there are others) work on GPL modules/patches that have
no hope of making it into mainline because they're too specialized.
Custom netfilter modules, drivers for special hardware, scheduler
changes, additional instrumentation, etc.

Plus, we're usually working on a stabilized older version, so it's a lot
of extra work to regenerate it against current versions to even try and
merge it.

The source all goes to the customer but it just wouldn't make sense to
have it in mainline.

So the "churn mainline to punish out-of-tree code" argument doesn't make
sense to me. If there's a good reason for the change, then go for
it--but change just to make it hard for out of tree code is simply annoying.

Chris