[openib-general] OpenIb 1.0 release components

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

Hello!
I'd like to get comments on an issue that seems important
to me with respect to openib release 1.0.

It seems that the openib release 1.0 as planned will include not only userspace
libraries but also some kernel level modules.

While this might be a good idea for modules such as iSER
which are not currently part of the mainline kernel tree,
it is in my opinion clearly not a good idea to replace the
modules which *are* distributed with the mainline kernel.

I am talking about components such as IPoIB or core verbs:
it seems clear that we must not create another fork of these (in addition
to distributions and to mainline kernel releases) by simply
ripping the mainline kernel code out and replacing with our own.

This concern was recently raised on lkml - for modules included in
mainline people are expected to test mainline release candidates
and not bypass it by distributing out of kernel modules.

I guess it should be OK, if necessary, to keep a set of small
patches against the mainline kernel.

-- 
Michael S. Tsirkin
Staff Engineer, Mellanox Technologies