From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261380AbUD1UEJ (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:04:09 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261258AbUD1UDd (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:03:33 -0400 Received: from turing-police.cc.vt.edu ([128.173.14.107]:1921 "EHLO turing-police.cc.vt.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261159AbUD1TSb (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:18:31 -0400 Message-Id: <200404281918.i3SJIPPR005391@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.6.3 04/04/2003 with nmh-1.0.4+dev To: Goran Cengic Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Special place for tird-party modules. In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:14:24 +0200." <200404281814.24991.cengic@s2.chalmers.se> From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu References: <200404281814.24991.cengic@s2.chalmers.se> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="==_Exmh_1834002709P"; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:18:25 -0400 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --==_Exmh_1834002709P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:14:24 +0200, Goran Cengic said: > I do understand that many developers have several kernel version installed at > the same time but is it possible to share between the versions at least the > modules that are not developed as the part of the kernel? > > If I'm missing something cruical please point it out to me. What you're missing is the reason for modversions to exist - the fact that the kernel API *does* change between releases, and even within the same source tree (UP vs SMP builds, for instance). If we supported what you're suggesting, then the following *will* happen: 1) Binary module for 2.6.N is released that uses an API that takes 5 parameters. 2) 2.6.N+1 comes out, and said API has another parameter added (see the recent tweak-fest for elf_map() for an actual example). 3) User loads old binary into kernel. 4) Kernel OOPs when it dereferences the non-existent 6th parameter that wasn't passed by the un-updated binary. --==_Exmh_1834002709P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 07/13/2001 iD8DBQFAkAOAcC3lWbTT17ARAs3eAKDTt6GjYOdp6xDysfpstnF17bbKggCg/sX5 s1xV6JdWNwQzuU5RupVMA4Y= =mqpZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_1834002709P--