[ewg] Re: [ofa-general] Toward next OFED release (1.3)

[Roland Dreier]

 > Note that not that OFED 1.1 and 1.2 only include kernel drivers
 > which are not upstream, some of them (eg SDP, RDS) never passed any
 > --review-- cycle at the relevant mailing lists
 > (openib,netdev,lkml). Now, for OFED 1.3 there's a suggestion to add
 > rNFS which was also never reviewed.

Good point.  I'm actually less concerned about entirely new modules
than about patches to existing modules, because I think it's pretty
easy for someone to understand, "oh, that module isn't in Linus's
kernel yet, so if I switch to a vanilla kernel I don't have it."  On
the other hand, if we sneak fixes and changes into OFED that don't go
upstream, then I think users and developers may waste a lot of time
debugging things that someone else debugged already.

With that said, perhaps it is a good idea to be stricter about getting
things in the upstream kernel.  For example, maybe we should make the
rule that a module cannot be called "GA" for OFED if it is not merged
upstream -- everything not upstream is automatically a "technology
preview."  This actually protects users if a module has to change when
it is merged.

 - R.