Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 3 Dec 2013 15:51:53 +0000 | From | One Thousand Gnomes <> | Subject | Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH RFC] xen-block: correctly define structures in public headers |
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> > If Konrad and Boris agree that breaking the kernel's ABI in this way is > > acceptable in this specific case, I'll defer to them. > > My opinion as Xen on ARM hypervisor maintainer is that this is the right > thing to do in this case.
Sounds to me like the difference between "product" and "research toy". You don't break back compatibility in a product when you can avoid it. You may wish the publically humiliate those responsible (Linus seems to) but at the end of the day it's done.
Your boolean choice is a false one anyway - you can do at least three different things
- Implement and tell people to use the new API, break everyone's PoC and deployed systems, prevent old kernels running on newer Xen and generally make users lose confidence in it
- Keep the erroneous API and live with the uglies
- Keep the erroneous API working but implement a new clean API (and possibly make misuse produce a one per boot whine about fixing your kernel)
The Linux approach has tended to be the last one most of the time, coupled with Linus having a rant 8)
Alan
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