From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 9 12:20:15 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: 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 E374B16A41F for ; Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:20:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [209.31.154.42]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9935B43D46 for ; Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:20:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [209.31.154.41]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16BCA46B7C; Wed, 9 Nov 2005 07:20:15 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:20:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson X-X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Marcin Jessa In-Reply-To: <20051109110903.583bb72d.lists@yazzy.org> Message-ID: <20051109121720.M39365@fledge.watson.org> References: <20051108232855.2d1b7df5.lists@yazzy.org> <20051109093920.GA45506@samodelkin.net> <20051109110903.583bb72d.lists@yazzy.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: current@freebsd.org, Max Khon Subject: Re: Generic Kernel API X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 12:20:16 -0000 On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, Marcin Jessa wrote: > Sure, but the point is to use native FreeBSD drivers, even if they were > in closed source binary form and not drivers written for an entirely > different O.S. I think there is general agreement that it would be nice to be able to offer both relatively static APIs and ABIs to device driver writers writing device drivers for FreeBSD. However, with the massive changes in kernel architecture over the last 4-5 years as part of SMPng and the threading work, that simply hasn't been possible. We do attempt to keep the API and ABI for device drivers relatively stable over the lifetime of a major release (i.e., 4.*, 5.*, 6.*) but even that runs into occasional problems. My hope is that in the next year or so, things will settle down significantly as we begin to flush the last of the non-MPSAFE drivers from the system, and reach a point where all device drivers can use consistent synchronization. Among other things, we have an item scheduled for the FreeBSD developer summit at EuroBSDCon to nail down parts of the network device driver API for this purpose. I.e., there is interest in what has been proposed, but we're not quite at a point where we can nail down the API in a more permanent way. Robert N M Watson