[Rdma-developers] Re: [openib-general] OpenIB and OpenRDMA: Convergence on common RDMAAPIs and ULPs for Linux

[Caitlin Bestler]

I hadn't heard that insmod was being removed from Linux.

In fact the DAPL Plugfest successfully used kernel
daemons and kdapltest to demonstrate DAT interoperability
across multiple vendors: kernel to kernel, kernel to user
and user to user.

These are existing applications already deployed. I fail to
see how you believe breaking them "improves" Linux.

Software like the NFS over RDMA or SDP implementations
are developed as kernel daemons outside of the official
kernel first. Others develop special interest drivers and
daemons that will never be of sufficient general interest
to be incorporated in "the kernel".

That's why insmod exists. the ability to add prototype
or specialty daemon in the kernel is an ability that 
virtually every operating system provides.

And there are KDAPL applications runnign that way
*today*. Whatever runs inside the kernel source tree
can be totally unrelated to that, but it shouldn't export
existing DAT symbols if it changes their meaning.
And existing device drivers and DAT Provider libraries
should not be broken either (assuming the OS services
that they *are* relying on are still there. If those changed,
the developers of those modules are responsible for
udpating them).


On 6/2/05, Christoph Hellwig <hch at lst.de> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 01, 2005 at 06:33:14PM -0700, Caitlin Bestler wrote:
> > As I stated earlier, kDAPL is designed for *applications*
> > and was not really intended for use by the OS itself.
> > As such it abstracts more than just the transport.
> 
> I'm not sure what you call kernel applications, but I'm pretty sure
> we're not interested to support anything that comes close to this term
> in linux kernelspace.
> 
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