From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263002AbTLWXIO (ORCPT ); Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:08:14 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262782AbTLWXH2 (ORCPT ); Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:07:28 -0500 Received: from parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk ([195.92.249.252]:37785 "EHLO www.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262859AbTLWXF5 (ORCPT ); Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:05:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 23:05:55 +0000 From: viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk To: Hua Zhong Cc: "'Rob Love'" , "'Jari Soderholm'" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: DEVFS is very good compared to UDEV Message-ID: <20031223230555.GF4176@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> References: <1072216884.6987.52.camel@fur> <008401c3c9a3$0d11abe0$ca41cb3f@amer.cisco.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <008401c3c9a3$0d11abe0$ca41cb3f@amer.cisco.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 02:21:03PM -0800, Hua Zhong wrote: > But I do have sth fair to say about this "unmaintained" part. > > >From my memory, at some point in time, somebody (Al Viro?) reviewed > devfs code and flamed the author in public (klml), throwing lots of bad > impolite words to him, which I think was the biggest reason that the > author stopped maintaining it. Oh, really? That "flame in public" was after _many_ months of pointing to the same problems in private - with zero effect. If maintainer sits on exploitable holes for ~18 months and does not care to do anything, his code is unmaintained. If same maintainer keeps pretending in public that everything is fine, he can expect to have the truthfulness of his statements challenged. Also in public. If the situation persists even after that, then yes, there will be rather unflattering things to say. Don't delude yourself - critical parts of devfs had not been maintained for quite a while before Richard had disappeared. It's not the effect of flames - it's their cause and it predates them by _far_.