Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:02 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> To: current@FreeBSD.org Subject: HEADS UP: Kernel ABI for network device drivers changes Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1041031143243.48928B-100000@fledge.watson.org>
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Over the last two days, I've modified the size of 'struct ifnet' in order to add several spare fields. The goal is to break the ABI now just before 5.3 so that we can preserve network interface driver ABI more easily over the lifetime of 5.x even as we continue the network stack work. The result of this change is that all network interface drivers on the 6.x, 5.x, and 5.3 branches must be recompiled when you update to the latest kernel. Since few third party network drivers exist right now, we figured it was better to do it now than after the release as final compiled third party drivers start to turn up. In addition to adding the fields, we also moved if_handoff() from being an inline to a function, as we anticipate changing the way that network device dispatch occurs. Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects robert@fledge.watson.org Principal Research Scientist, McAfee Research
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