Re: Availability of kdb

From: Tigran Aivazian (tigran@veritas.com)
Date: Wed Sep 06 2000 - 13:31:53 EST


Daniel,

very nice monologue, thanks. It would be great to know Linus' opinion. I
mean, I knew Linus' opinion of some years' ago but perhaps it changed? He
is a living being and not some set of rules written in stone so perhaps
current stability/highquality of kdb suggests to Linus that it may be
(just maybe) acceptable into official tree?

(hence I cc'd Linus, please forgive me (Linus) if you don't want to hear
about kdb again)

Regards,
Tigran

On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, Daniel Phillips wrote:

> Mike Galbraith wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, Damien Miller wrote:
> >
> > > Tools like a KDB would make the kernel a lot more accessible to the
> > > time-poor.
> >
> > Kdb is available to all. I think it should be _integrated_ mostly
> > because of the (potential) improvement in bug report quality.
>
> Well, yes and no. As maintained by SGI, kdb is up to date:
> ftp://oss.sgi.com/www/projects/kdb/download/ix86/kdb-v1.3-2.4.0-test8-pre4.gz
>
> As maintained in the official ikd package, kdb is unusuably out of
> date, at least for me:
> ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/andrea/ikd/v2.4/2.4.0-test2-ikd2.bz2
>
> Q: If kdb were a kernel option, would the official version be out of
> date, the way it is now?
> A: no.
>
> Q: If kdb were a kernel option, would Linus be called on to fix it
> when it breaks?
> A: no, obviously not, Linus is too busy
>
> Q: Who would fix it then?
> A: Whoever breaks it.
>
> Q: What if Linus breaks it?
> A: That's a special case. I personally will drop whatever I'm doing
> and try to fix it. I will cordially invite J. Dow, J. Merkey, R.
> Gootch, and various other degenerate powertool lovers to help.
>
> Q: Would kdb in the kernel result in more bugs getting fixed faster?
> A: Yes, no doubt
>
> Q: Do we need more bugs fixed faster?
> A: Yes, we need that desperately.
>
> Q: Would kdb in the kernel give us more eyes on the bugs, making them
> even shallower than they already are?
> A: Why, yes it would.
>
> Q: Will kdb make your kernel bigger or slow it down?
> A: Not if you don't use it.
>
> Q: Is kdb a big patch?
> A: It's only 93K, zipped.
>
> Q: Then why isn't kdb in the kernel?
> A: Uh...
>
> --
> Daniel
>
> "With enough Q's and A's, all arguments are shallow"
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