[ofa-general] Re: RFC: modify upstream code to make backporting easier

[Roland Dreier]

 > Note that some people only run
 > backported drivers, so making it easier to read and maintain
 > *the backport* is also important.

The philosophy of the kernel has always been that the backport needs
to bear the cost, and we don't want to add extra #ifdefs to the
standard kernel that don't do anything except in non-standard situations.

 > Do you think applying a patch as we do now is the best way to do it then?

To be honest the patch that started this thread looked very reasonable
and easy to maintain to me.  The pain of backporting gets higher as
the kernel you're backporting to gets older, but that's just hte way
things are.