On Sun, 6 Aug 2000, Tom Rauschenbach wrote:
> Linus himself has spoken to this.
On Sun, 6 Aug 2000, Jeffry Smith wrote:
> On more important stuff - Linus' statement on LKML about binary
> compatibility is he doesn't care.
Interesting. Although I'm familiar with Linus's stance on the issue of
binary compatibility in the kernel, I was thinking more of the problems Linux
has had with compatibility between different versions of GCC and GNU libc.
Perhaps they use the same excuse the kernel developers do; I don't know.
Even so, compatibility between different revs of libraries should be a much
easier ball-game then the kernel. (You can keep multiple revs of the same
library around, but it is hard to run more then one rev of the kernel on the
same machine. ;)
I agree with Linus & Co. in general. But, from a support point-of-view, I,
personally, think at least *some* effort should be made towards binary
compatibility. Not because it makes life easier for closed-source shops, but
because it makes life easier for *me*. It's so much easier to distribute one
binary to all the machines I have to worry about then:
- Keep track of 42 different versions of each binary, one for each
subtle variation in kernel, compiler, libc, version, options, etc.
-OR-
- Distribute an entire source package and try to compile it on each
platform (especially when some machines don't have a compiler installed,
have read-only filesystems, etc.)
I'm sure the problem is only magnified for the likes of Red Hat, IBM, or
<insert potential big Linux-using company here>. I agree that binary
compatibility shouldn't get in the way of progress, but there have been
occasions where the incompatibilities have seemed to be easily avoidable or
even gratuitous.
> ... He ensures compatibility within a release (2.2, 2.0, etc) ...
<laughter> I've seen kernel modules from the *same release* refuse to load
because of unresolved symbols. And not just for things like the SMP flag
being set. This "binary compatibilities within major releases" is an
unrealized goal, IMNSHO.
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too |
| dark to read!" -- Groucho Marx |
**********************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the
*body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter:
unsubscribe gnhlug
**********************************************************
