FW: [openib-general] Minutes from DAPL BOF at OpenIB Workshop

[Eric W. Biederman]

"Dan Bar Dov" <danb at voltaire.com> writes:

> > > We need the same API on all platforms.
> > 
> > I don't know who "we" here is, but we as the kernel developer 
> > community certainly disagree.
> 
> So how do you describe scsi mid layer?
> Scsi mid layer is exaclty a unifying API that hides the specific hardware device
> drivers from the upper layer abstpractions.
> 
> The kdapl model is identical to the scsi model - a single in-kernel API that
> hides different hardware specific implementations of RDMA.

I don't think I have seen any one argue that the concept of an RDMA abstraction
is bad.  I have simply seen that kDAPL is bad.

The scsi mid layer is a really bad example as it is deprecated code.  But
ignoring that.  The scsi mid layer  is not OS agnostic, and it is even
free to change between kernel versions if a better way is found.  Plus
the API is in the linux kernel coding style.

kDAPL as designed is none of those.  The operations and concept it may
be possible to salvage.  kDAPL cannot be, at least not in the
mainstream kernel.

Eric