Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__

Linus Torvalds
2004-11-30T22:26:22Z

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, Alexandre Oliva wrote:

> > (a) it can't break anything (ie the old location still includes the new
> > one, exactly the same way)
>
> You mean it can't break anything in a kernel build, or it can't break
> anything except for userland apps that abused kernel headers and used
> to get away with that?

It can't break userland either.

> > (b) there are people who will actually take _advantage_ of that
> > particular file (ie "just because I think so" doesn't fly).
>
> People who currently get to maintain duplicates of these header
> contents will take immediate advantage of these changes, since they
> will no longer have to maintain the duplicates.

Wrong. They'll _still_ have to maintain duplicates, since they can't rely
ont he end-user to have a recent enough kernel.

It's just that they can hopefully start _copying_ their dupliates more
easily. But if you think the duplication goes away, then I don't want you
to send me patches, because you don't understand the issues.

At RH you may see only the case where people do a whole-system upgrade.
Please realize that that is just _one_ schenario, and you should not
assume that it's the only valid one.

Linus