In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Jeff Garzik writes:
> On Thu, 23 Dec 1999, Hans Reiser wrote:
> > All I'm going to ask is that if mark_buffer_dirty gets changed again,
> > whoever changes it please let us know this time..... The last two times
> > it was changed we weren't informed, and the first time it happened it
> > took a long time to figure it out.
>
> Can't you figure this sort of thing out on your own? Generally if you
> want to stay updated on something, you are the one who needs to do the
> legwork. And grep'ing patches ain't that hard....
>
> Jeff
Jeff, Hans is absolutely right.
We can all figure it out on our own, and waste many hours re-discovering
that which others have discovered independently. It's a royal pain and time
sink. I'd rather write new code than try to figure out what's changed b/t
kernel versions. In my case (stackable f/s), every time there's a change to
anything under linux/fs, linux/mm, or headers, I've got to find out what
changed and how it affected my code. It's NOT enough to grep the patches.
Union diffs don't give you enough of a context of difference that's
meaningful to understanding the overall changes that were made. I have to
use emacs's ediff or other methods to find out the meaning and motivation
behind the change.
There is no NEWS file for each release.
There is no ChangeLog for each release. Actually there are a few ChangeLog
files sprinkled around the sources. The last linux-2.3.25/fs/ChangeLog was
updated was 1998.
There is no one who summarizes kernel changes. A long time ago, someone
used to. I don't remember his name. Is he still doing that?
I maintain a much smaller package (am-utils) and there's no way I could
remember what changes I've made throughout the years. That's why I keep a
details ChangeLog and NEWS files w/ my releases. I realize the linux kernel
is a much bigger and complex beast, but shouldn't that be a bigger
motivation for everyone to keep ChangeLogs? IMHO, if we want to speed linux
development along, we should help the documentation of linux.
Hans and linux-fsdevel folks: I have a proposal. How would you all feel
forming an informal group that would report changes relevant to f/s
developers on this list. (Maybe even a different mailing list?) I'm
willing to take the time to report whatever VFS changes I find each time I
update my stackable f/s code for a new kernel, including when no relevant
changes are made (which IMHO is just as important). This effort would help
all of us f/s developers, but only if we each take the time to report our
findings to this list. The few minutes each person takes to report their
findings as they relate to their f/s, will save numerous other people many
hours; overall this would help everyone. We can also make it easy to find
these messages in the archives, so we can make the Subject of such messages
a grep-able format---say,
CHANGE 2.3.17-2.3.18: vm_area_struct->vm_pte renamed vm_private_data
Comments?
Erez.
