[ewg] OFED 1.5.2: libibumad.so version bump

[Hal Rosenstock]

Hi Ira,

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 3:49 PM, Ira Weiny <weiny2 at llnl.gov> wrote:
> 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.

How does breaking up the "management" git tree help with this issue ?
To me, that's the admin part and is separate from the ABI issue
raised. The ABI compatibility is not achieved by administrative means
(separate repos, etc.) but rather than review and discipline to
achieve this as a unmutable goal.

-- Hal

> 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
>> --
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-rdma" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo at vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at  http://*vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>
>
>
> --
> Ira Weiny
> Math Programmer/Computer Scientist
> Lawrence Livermore National Lab
> 925-423-8008
> weiny2 at llnl.gov
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-rdma" in
> the body of a message to majordomo at vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>