Re: RFD: Kernel release numbering

Andrew Morton
2005-03-03T21:15:05Z

Andries Brouwer <aebr@win.tue.nl> wrote:
>
> API stability: Stable series like 2.0, 2.2, 2.4 try to maintain
> the guarantee that user-visible APIs do not change. That goal
> has disappeared, meaning that anything might break when one
> upgrades from 2.6.14 to 2.6.16.
> This is one of the big disadvantages of the new 2.6 way.

It depends on what you call a "user visible API".

Changes which are visible to userspace are treated with great caution
nowadays[*]. I keep on rejecting patches...

Changes which are visible to third-party kernel modules are more
acceptable, but we're still fairly reluctant to make them.

So I think you exaggerate. And I don't see that the problem which you
describe is inevitably a part of the "new 2.6 way".

[*] I don't know any details of the /proc incompatibility which davej
mentions, and I'd like to. That sounds like a screw-up.