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From: Chris Friesen <chris.friesen@windriver.com>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Are there any internal kernel ABI/API guarantees in -stable releases?
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 13:48:26 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <929a9cbf-1059-4cfc-bed0-88e8fe931560@windriver.com> (raw)

Hi everyone,

Looking at 
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-kernel-rules.html 
there are a number of criteria for patches to -stable releases.

However, there is no mention of preserving the stability of internal 
kernel ABIs and/or APIs.

Do successive patch releases of -stable kernels provide any guarantees 
that they will not change ABIs and/or APIs, remove functionality, change 
behaviour, etc.?   For example, would a -stable commit be allowed to 
make a change that would break an out-of-tree (but open-source) device 
driver if that's the only way to fix a bug?

I know that during the development of new major/minor versions 
developers are free to break ABIs and APIs at will as long as they fix 
up all the in-tree code.  Does that still hold true for -stable commits 
or do things get more restrictive?

Thanks,
Chris

             reply	other threads:[~2025-05-29 19:48 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-05-29 19:48 Chris Friesen [this message]
2025-05-30  5:08 ` Are there any internal kernel ABI/API guarantees in -stable releases? Greg KH

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