From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 30 18:45:36 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0AFEA106567D for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:45:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from mail2.fluidhosting.com (mx23.fluidhosting.com [204.14.89.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B4CB78FC12 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:45:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: (qmail 9526 invoked by uid 399); 30 Jul 2008 18:45:35 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO lap.dougb.net) (dougb@dougbarton.us@127.0.0.1) by localhost with ESMTPAM; 30 Jul 2008 18:45:35 -0000 X-Originating-IP: 127.0.0.1 X-Sender: dougb@dougbarton.us Message-ID: <4890B6CD.5090304@FreeBSD.org> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:45:33 -0700 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (X11/20080726) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: David Southwell References: <1217346345.12322.31.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> <200807300247.34948.david@vizion2000.net> <200807301211.54974.modelnine@modelnine.org> <200807300411.31557.david@vizion2000.net> In-Reply-To: <200807300411.31557.david@vizion2000.net> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.6 OpenPGP: id=D5B2F0FB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Heiko Wundram , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upcoming ABI Breakage in RELENG_7 X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:45:36 -0000 David Southwell wrote: > It sure helps the understanding bit but how about specific instructions about > who is to what to do in this instance? I fear that the forest is getting lost for the trees here. :) Under most (90% or more) circumstances "stuff," be that kernel modules or userland binaries, that is on a -stable system will still work in its current form after you do an upgrade. In the event of an actual ABI breakage you would be informed of when and where to tune for additional .... wait, wrong PSA. If this had actually been an ABI breakage then any userland binaries that depend on the thing that changed would have to be recompiled after the update in order to continue working. Since this is actually a KERNEL interface that's changing, any kernel modules that use this interface (which is quite a lot) will have to be recompiled _as part of the update_ for them to work. If you are not using any 3rd party kernel modules (commercial, ports tree, etc.) then you have nothing to worry about. Your FreeBSD kernel modules will be updated along with the kernel, and everyone is happy. If you are using a 3rd party module from ports that deals with file systems (and yes, FUSE is an obvious example here) then you'll need to pkg_delete it, do the update, then recompile. Q.E.D. If you happen to be using a commercial (i.e., you don't have the source) kernel module that deals with file systems now is the time to contact your vendor and let them know about this issue. However, as Ken rightly pointed out this change will actually impact a very small percentage of FreeBSD users, and the majority of that impact will be recompiling a port as described above. I should also point out that FreeBSD developers deal with this issue all the time on -current since things there are allowed to change, and sometimes do change quite often. Therefore it's easy for us to forget to list important details about a change like this since it's second nature to us. hth, Doug -- This .signature sanitized for your protection