linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 4/4] GenWQE: Increase driver version number

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Message-ID: <20140605160010.GF23993@kroah.com>
Date:	Thu, 5 Jun 2014 09:00:10 -0700
From:	Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:	Frank Haverkamp <haver@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc:	Kleber Sacilotto de Souza <klebers@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/4] GenWQE: Increase driver version number

On Thu, Jun 05, 2014 at 11:23:04AM +0200, Frank Haverkamp wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> 
> Am Mittwoch, den 04.06.2014, 08:54 -0700 schrieb Greg KH:
> > On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 10:57:53AM -0300, Kleber Sacilotto de Souza wrote:
> > > Increase genwqe driver version number.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: Kleber Sacilotto de Souza <klebers@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
> > > ---
> > >  drivers/misc/genwqe/genwqe_driver.h |    2 +-
> > >  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
> > > 
> > > diff --git a/drivers/misc/genwqe/genwqe_driver.h b/drivers/misc/genwqe/genwqe_driver.h
> > > index cd52631..a506e9a 100644
> > > --- a/drivers/misc/genwqe/genwqe_driver.h
> > > +++ b/drivers/misc/genwqe/genwqe_driver.h
> > > @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
> > >  #include <asm/byteorder.h>
> > >  #include <linux/genwqe/genwqe_card.h>
> > >  
> > > -#define DRV_VERS_STRING		"2.0.15"
> > > +#define DRV_VERS_STRING		"2.0.21"
> > 
> > Why is this even needed?  Can't you go off of the kernel version number
> > now?  Who needs / wants this number?
> 
> I am aware that if just considering the mainline kernels, we could use
> the kernel version itself for the purpose of identifying which code we
> are running.

Which is what you are patching here :)

> But in our lab we are running multiple back-ported versions of this
> driver on different Linux distributions using different kernel versions.

Then deal with that in the backported code, the upstream kernel doesn't
care about this.

> Our user-space software needs to know if the driver has or has not
> bug-fixes or features. For this purpose, we are using this extra number.

Why would you rely on a version number for this, shouldn't you be able
to tell with your api what features are present?

thanks,

greg k-h
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