it's my belief that those who have raised objections on the grounds of
compatibility are a very small but vocal minority. And that the majority of
users are either using the more up-to-date patches or wouldn't mind updating
tools.
> So you can apply the knfs patches yourself. I strongly
> recommend you and
> every vendor does that.
linux used to be known for holding clean bug-fixes above backwards
compatibility. And it was accepted that the price of bug-fixes/new features
meant keeping track of util's updates. But this seems to have changed in the
last while.
Look at the situation:
we're holding off applying needed bug-fixes to maintain compatibility with
older tools shipped in distro's, when the tools shipped with the distro's
are mostly not compatible with stock linux anyway (with or without patches)!
eg RH6 ships with knfsd and RAID that are not compatible with the stock
kernel, and not compatible with the latest patches.
If you do use stock kernel knfs for any half serious purpose you will soon
find you *have* to upgrade anyway, *if you know about the patches*. (outside
of l-k subscribers it's not really well known). Or avoid using linux as an
nfs server completely.
The current situation is confusing enough for those who follow linux-kernel.
Now think of all the linux/unix admins who don't subscribe to l-k or read
LWN or kernelnotes. And even those who know about the patches might not want
to apply them. A lot of people don't want to apply patches even. They trust
to the next stock kernel being fixed or they track their distributions
updates (in which case they're not affected by stock Linux updates). And if
they do download a latest stock kernel what then? It's still most likely not
compatible with the tools installed by their distribution.
I also believe the reason for the current knfs/raid patch situation is cause
integration has been held off for too long. Isn't it time to swallow the
pill and just get it over with? (imo certainly for knfsd, maybe for RAID).
Perhaps a poll of RAID and knfsd users would help?
regards,
Paul Jakma.
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