Milan Jurik wrote: > E.g. if you mean BartS blog entry about dim sum patching then I can say > that I disagree. Linux distributions are able to work in their way of > dim sum patching. And their space is more "unstable" than Solaris space. >
I don't think you mean the core OS here. If you're talking about selecting which Apache build to run on your 2.16.mumble kernel, yes, that works. But I seriously doubt you can select various kernel binaries released over the last two years from Red Hat and pick and choose which binaries you wish to use. Most Linux distros group their kernel into a very small number of (or single) packages - so you automatically get a consistent view of the world. In the end, the limit to selection is a file. You can only have one copy of genunix active on the system at once; if you fix a bug in the S10 source base today and it generates a new version of genunix, any customer wishing to get that bug fix _MUST_ accept all previous bug fixes that affected genunix. Now, if a developer does a bug fix that affects 10 binaries, it is my assertion that all 10 of those binaries should appear on the system, not just one or two. The difficulties in testing various combinations across all the various deployments (architectures, global vs local zone, previous patch level) are insurmountable. As a result, the larger the putbacks that go into the patch gate, the more the customer's possible choices are curtailed. We're far better off improving our packaging and source code management technology to permit us to deliver multiple streams of tested change, delivering at different rates to meet customer requirements, than attempting to carefully handcraft a single stream of binaries, assembled into groups called patches, that can be assembled by our customers into a untested-by-Sun amalgam of bug fixes and features. - Bart -- Bart Smaalders Solaris Kernel Performance barts at cyber.eng.sun.com http://blogs.sun.com/barts
