From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 31 14:35:46 2004 Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG> Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1C83316A4CE for <current@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:46 +0000 (GMT) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [204.156.12.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A17D943D54 for <current@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:45 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fledge.watson.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id i9VEZ2hA050786 for <current@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:35:02 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from localhost (robert@localhost)i9VEZ2g8050783 for <current@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:02 GMT (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:02 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: current@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1041031143243.48928B-100000@fledge.watson.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: HEADS UP: Kernel ABI for network device drivers changes X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current <freebsd-current.freebsd.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current> List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-current@freebsd.org> List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe> X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:35:46 -0000 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