[ofw] RE: [PATCH] Fix ND connection establishment races

[Fab Tillier]

>> ND over WinVerbs is the end goal, however there are ND drivers in the
>> field right now, supported by the various IB OEMs, that need to be
>> fixed. WinVerbs however is not supported currently in any driver
>> release.
>
>  This patch includes changes added specifically for winverbs support.

So?  It doesn't require WinVerbs to be supported, and uses the functionality you added to the CEP manager because it allowed things to be simplified.  Just because the functionality was added for WinVerbs doesn't mean that it doesn't have value outside of WinVerbs, especially if the changes are being made to non-WinVerbs specific parts of the stack.  Why are you so opposed to code reuse here?

> It breaks the user to kernel ABI.  It requires an entire rebuild and
> reinstall of the drivers and userspace libraries.  This is not some
> incremental upgrade to an existing release - it requires a wholesale
> replacement of the stack.

How would you update drivers without rebuilding or installing?  The DLLs get updated as part of driver install anyway, so it doesn't matter if they change.

Let me be clear about my priorities here: I want working drivers to be available for NetworkDirect.  It doesn't matter if it's over WinVerbs or something else.  You're usually a firm believer in incremental changes to the drivers, not sure why you oppose this so vehemently.  I'm only trying to make what's there better.  I'm happy to test ND over WinVerbs, as well as contributing to its development - I would think that the time I spent testing async vs. sync QP modification would be indicative of this.  I just don't have the cycles to extend WinVerbs and write a whole new ND provider.

If you want an ND provider layered above WinVerbs, make it happen - I certainly won't stop you.

-Fab