netdev - Re: [PATCH 02/39] wimax: declarations for the in-kernel WiMAX API

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Date:	Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:32:03 +0100
From:	Johannes Berg <johannes@...solutions.net>
To:	Inaky Perez-Gonzalez <inaky@...ux.intel.com>
Cc:	netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 02/39] wimax: declarations for the in-kernel WiMAX API

On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 15:07 -0800, Inaky Perez-Gonzalez wrote:

> + * NOTE: this versioning is a last resort to avoid hard
> + *    incompatibilities. It is the intention of the design of this
> + *    stack not to introduce backward incompatible changes.
> + *
> + * The version code has to fit in one byte (restrictions imposed by
> + * generic netlink); we use `version / 10` for the major version and
> + * `version % 10` for the minor. This gives 9 minors for each major
> + * and 25 majors.
> + *
> + * The version change protocol is as follow:
> + *
> + * - Major versions: needs to be increased if an existing message/API
> + *   call is changed or removed. Doesn't need to be changed if a new
> + *   message is added.
> + *
> + * - Minor verion: needs to be increased if new messages/API calls are

small typo there

> + *   being added or some other consideration that doesn't impact the
> + *   user-kernel interface too much (like some kind of bug fix) and
> + *   that is kind of left up in the air to common sense.
> + *
> + * User space code should not try to work if the major version it was
> + * compiled for differs from what the kernel offers. As well, if the
> + * minor version of the kernel interface is lower than the one user
> + * space is expecting (the one it was compiled for), the kernel
> + * might be missing API calls; user space shall be ready to handle
> + * said condition.
> + *
> + * libwimax:wimax_open() takes care of checking versions.

Why bother versioning the API? Since this is generic netlink, and things
are looked up by the family name, a completely new version would just
use a new family name and be done with it, old userspace won't even
_find_ that new "version" of the API. The "minor version" seems also
useless, either you can do the change in a backward compatible way or
you cannot and need to provide compat code.

I'd just remove this.

johannes

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