From owner-freebsd-current Sat Sep 26 14:46:18 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA21644 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sat, 26 Sep 1998 14:46:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from cimlogic.com.au (cimlog.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.51.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA21634 for ; Sat, 26 Sep 1998 14:46:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jb@cimlogic.com.au) Received: (from jb@localhost) by cimlogic.com.au (8.9.1/8.9.1) id HAA21507; Sun, 27 Sep 1998 07:52:39 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from jb) From: John Birrell Message-Id: <199809262152.HAA21507@cimlogic.com.au> Subject: Re: Upgrade documentation (Was: Re: Make world error on -current elf) In-Reply-To: <199809261432.WAA08035@spinner.netplex.com.au> from Peter Wemm at "Sep 26, 98 10:32:30 pm" To: peter@netplex.com.au (Peter Wemm) Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 07:52:39 +1000 (EST) Cc: jb@cimlogic.com.au, Studded@dal.net, current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL40 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Peter Wemm wrote: > I am still not quite comfortable with the 3.0-CURRENT -> elf conversion > process. > > The instructions there and the Makefile.upgrade rules push towards an > unneded recompile and reboot of a kernel in order to complete the process. > > Any 3.0-CURRENT kernel from about July 1997 (over a year old) will run an > ELF world quite happily. IMHO, defaulting to unecessarily replacing the > user's customized kernel with a generic one is bad karma. I doubt that you've tested that. Sure, it may be able to load elf format executables, but there have been so many other changes that affect compatibility between user-land and the kernel. My approach to this sort of thing is: "if it's not tested, then it doesn't work". The upgrade procedure is for the 95% of people who need a procedure that "just works". Of the other 5%, most are prepared to install a current kernel prior to doing the upgrade. Changing the kernel compatibility test would introduce the possibility that things might not work correctly when the user reboots. This is a serious issue because it can hose people. I don't want to have to deal with the support problems that would cause. As it stands, a lot of people have used the current procedure to upgrade, even in the midst of major changes to current. -- John Birrell - jb@cimlogic.com.au; jb@freebsd.org http://www.cimlogic.com.au/ CIMlogic Pty Ltd, GPO Box 117A, Melbourne Vic 3001, Australia +61 418 353 137 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message