[ewg] OFED 1.5.2: libibumad.so version bump

[Ira Weiny]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:27:29 -0700
Yevgeny Kliteynik <kliteyn at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> In order to support RoCEE, a while ago I've added
> a new field to umad, thus introduced an ABI change.
> 
> There already was a discussion on the linux-rdma list,
> but due to the proximity of the upcoming OFED 1.5.2
> release these concerns were raised again.
> 
> So my question is, other that *general* concerns about
> changing ABI, is anybody aware of the *actual* problem
> that will be caused by this? Any customer/3rd party
> solution that would be affected by this?

Because our MVAPICH depends on umad, libibumad.so.1 to be exact.[*]  These ABI
changes (to v2 and v3) would have forced our users to recompile their codes.
We are maintaining the old ABI here until our next major release of CHAOS[#]
to prevent this.

I think the thing to remember is that many people are using Open Fabrics
software, but are _not_ using "OFED".  What is tested with OFED is not the
only thing which might be using these libraries.  Our version of MVAPICH is a
good example.

I am certainly not the expert in this area and I know that many people have
tried to make this point in the past, but I will say it here again.  Each of
these Open Fabrics packages _must_ be maintained to stand on their own.
Roland did this a long time ago with ibverbs.

I think now is a good time to start discussing breaking up the "management" git
tree so that these libraries can live on their own.  I will write a separate
email regarding this.

Ira

[*] We are looking into removing the dependency.
[#] Shameless plug: http://code.google.com/p/chaos-release/wiki/CHAOS_Description

> 
> -- Yevgeny
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-- 
Ira Weiny
Math Programmer/Computer Scientist
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
925-423-8008
weiny2 at llnl.gov