Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:20:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> To: Marcin Jessa <lists@yazzy.org> Cc: current@freebsd.org, Max Khon <fjoe@samodelkin.net> Subject: Re: Generic Kernel API Message-ID: <20051109121720.M39365@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20051109110903.583bb72d.lists@yazzy.org> References: <20051108232855.2d1b7df5.lists@yazzy.org> <20051109093920.GA45506@samodelkin.net> <20051109110903.583bb72d.lists@yazzy.org>
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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
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