linux-kernel - Re: [RFC] Don't use linux/version.h anymore to indicate a per-driver version - Was: Re: [PATCH 03/37] Remove unneeded version.h includes from include/

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Message-ID: <4E051791.9010800@infradead.org>
Date:	Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:02:41 -0300
From:	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@...radead.org>
To:	Stefan Richter <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de>
CC:	Devin Heitmueller <dheitmueller@...nellabs.com>,
	Andy Walls <awalls@...metrocast.net>,
	Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@...all.nl>,
	Jesper Juhl <jj@...osbits.net>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, trivial@...nel.org,
	linux-media@...r.kernel.org, ceph-devel@...r.kernel.org,
	Sage Weil <sage@...dream.net>
Subject: Re: [RFC] Don't use linux/version.h anymore to indicate a per-driver
 version - Was: Re: [PATCH 03/37] Remove unneeded version.h includes from
 include/

Em 24-06-2011 19:39, Stefan Richter escreveu:
> On Jun 24 Devin Heitmueller wrote:
>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 5:20 PM, Stefan Richter
>> <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de> wrote:
>>> Easier:
>>>  "I run Ubuntu 10.4".
>>>  "I run kernel 2.6.32."
>>> One of these is usually already included in the first post or IRC message
>>> from the user.
>>>
>>> Separate driver versions are only needed on platforms where drivers are
>>> not distributed by the operating system distributor, or driver source code
>>> is not released within kernel source code.
>>
>> Unfortunately, this doesn't work as all too often the user has "Ubuntu
>> 10.1 but I installed the latest media_build tree a few months ago".
>> Hence they are not necessarily on a particular binary release from a
>> distro but rather have a mix of a distro's binary release and a
>> v4l-dvb tree compiled from source.
> 
> If you release out-of-kernel-source driver sources for compilation against
> binary kernels, and you have got users who go through this procedure, then
> the user can for sure tell you the SCM version of the driver.

Yes, and this is currently provided. The dmesg will show the last 3 git commits.
A developer can just use git diff or git log to discover what changed since those
commits.

> Besides, isn't this outdated practice in times where Joe Enduser can get
> the very latest -rc kernel prepackaged on many distributions, including
> ones like Ubuntu?

Perhaps, but the cost to maintain the out-of-tree driver git tree is cheap. We provide
just a small building system, with a script that downloads a daily tarball
with just drivers/media and the corresponding includes (and a few drivers/staging).
The building system has a couple patches to allow backport compilation since 2.6.32.

Mauro.
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