From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 27 23:24:51 2003 Return-Path: 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 5804237B401 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 23:24:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net (heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B816043F75 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 23:24:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from user-38ldvsn.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.255.151] helo=mindspring.com) by heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19KuMd-0003qL-00; Tue, 27 May 2003 23:24:44 -0700 Message-ID: <3ED455E5.55EE34DC@mindspring.com> Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 23:23:33 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Q References: <1054090968.1429.10.camel@boxster> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a4655026cd4cd81ad6e5dcc62759519e47387f7b89c61deb1d350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: policy on GPL'd drivers? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 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, 28 May 2003 06:24:51 -0000 Q wrote: > I have been burnt by this in the past also. I think that it would be > useful if you could allow kernel modules to be bound to a particular > kernel "version/date/whatever", and have external modules refuse to load > and/or complain if the kernel is upgraded. This should prevent > unnecessary kernel panics when you upgrade. The Linux kernel has been > doing this for years. The FreeBSD DDI/DKI is not well enough documented, let alone versioned, let alone stable enough over time for this to work. Consider how long a third party binary-only driver would keep working for someone following -current, and you will see the problem. Basically, the only thing you are protecting against at that point is the driver not loading most of the time, and making people'se lives miserable bumping a single version number each time any non-static function in the kernel is changed. 8-(. FreeBSD would need to get a lot more serious about freezing kernel APIs for this type of thing to work. -- Terry