Re: Huge patches such as ISDN
Florian Lohoff (flo@rfc822.org)
Sun, 22 Aug 1999 23:02:49 +0200
On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 04:15:52AM -0700, M Carling wrote:
> I've been thinking about the huge ISDN patch for a few weeks now.
>
> I agree completely with Linus that huge patches should not be accepted at
> feature freeze time. As Linus has pointed out, they cannot be properly
> reviewed in the short time before the kernel is declared "stable". On the
> other hand, the work that the ISDN developers have done should make it
> into the tree. Asking them to submit small patches has been futile in the
> past and I don't see any reason to believe this will change.
>
> I believe the best time to roll in the huge ISDN patch would be 2.5.1.
> This allows the most time for peer review before it makes it into a
> "stable" kernel. Users who need it sooner can continue to apply the patch
> themselves, as they do now.
>
> Adding a huge patch now to 2.3 risks delaying 2.4. It also jeopardizes the
> stability of 2.4. Either of these suffice, IMO, to justify postponing a
> huge patch updating feature that is used by relatively few people (most of
> whom probably compile their own kernels) until 2.5.1.
I think the isdn coded itself is quite isolated from the rest of the kernel so
i think the isdn4linux guys should know which CVS snapshot is stable enough
to put in the kernel even before 2.4.
BUT: I see the problem that over the past years everybody (including me)
got used to just "get-current-cvs-snapshot-and-move-into-kernel-and-hope-it-
will-compile" strategy. So will most of the "more-kernel-oriented" persons
do even if the isdn code is in the kernel, that means that there will no
"big user base" to help debug the code.
BTW: While also thinking on the ISDN past, present and future and
more and more think a fork (its GPL - do what you like) will do
only good to the development as it did for the gcc.
Flo
--
Florian Lohoff flo@rfc822.org +49-5241-470566
Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't have all three). (RFC 1925)
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