Re: Uses of Linux backports in the industry

Julia Lawall
2015-06-01T20:03:30Z

On Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Felix Fietkau wrote:

> On 2015-05-29 04:54, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> > Me and Julia are working on a paper which evaluates use of Coccinelle
> > on backports, a preliminary draft of such paper can be found on github
> > [0]. We are making some tweaks to this, one of which is covering the
> > uses of Linux backports [1] in the industry, for this we'd like to try
> > to get feedback as to where and how folks are using backports. Please
> > let me and Julia know -- or if the information is not sensitive please
> > feel free to just reply to this thread and share with others. All
> > feedback is greatly appreciated. If you are OK in having us list or
> > generalize your usage please indicate so.
> In OpenWrt, we use backports to stay up to date with current wireless
> drivers without being forced into frequently updating the kernels as
> well. We support many different platforms, and sometimes it takes a
> while to update the kernel on them.
> Using backports significantly reduces the amount of effort that we need
> to put into maintaining the wireless drivers.
> When making changes to wireless drivers or mac80211, which I submit
> upstream, I also develop them in our most recent backports snapshot
> first (typically generated from wireless-testing). When they are done, I
> port them to a proper git tree and submit them from there.
>
> In OpenWrt, we typically update the backports snapshot outside of the
> normal kernel release cycle (always to latest wireless-testing) and
> stabilize that by cherry-picking individual patches on top of it.

Thanks for the feedback!

julia