Messages in this thread | | | From | "Henrik Rydberg" <> | Date | Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:47:01 +0100 | Subject | Re: Can we move device drivers into user-space? |
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> > The main issue that set me off has been sufficiently diluted in the > > (selective) discussion so as to no longer make sense as a reply: At > > some point, in-tree or out-of-tree will no longer be distinguishable, > > Please explain how you would be unable to distinguish between a driver > that lives in the kernel source tree, and one that does not.
The SUD pointed to in the beginning of the thread is an example of this, but I was not thinking of it in quite so literal terms. Rather, I was imagining that as the kernel grows and the in-kernel interfaces matures, the amount of actual communication between different portions of the code diminishes. Code on opposite sides of a stable interface is, for all practical purposes, separated. Whether that code lives in-tree or out-of tree is then of little consequence.
To try to prevent another flame war, let's make it clear that I am not saying that the most powerful in-kernel argument, that code can be changed, is unimportant. Maybe code, like so many other things, arranges itself in a scale-free critical fashion, which would forever warrant a monolithic approach. Maybe it would even make sense to have userspace join the same tree as well. There is however a frofoundly political aspect here, which cannot be expressed in terms of code. Also, in practise, breaking things down into manageable chunks is usually a good idea in the end.
Thanks, Henrik
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