netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next] net/core: Replace driver version to be kernel version

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Date:   Mon, 27 Jan 2020 07:34:33 +0200
From:   Leon Romanovsky <leon@...nel.org>
To:     Shannon Nelson <snelson@...sando.io>
Cc:     Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
        "David S . Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        Michal Kalderon <michal.kalderon@...vell.com>,
        linux-netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        RDMA mailing list <linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] net/core: Replace driver version to be kernel
 version

On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 02:21:58PM -0800, Shannon Nelson wrote:
> On 1/26/20 1:33 PM, Jakub Kicinski wrote
> > > The long-standing policy in kernel that we don't really care about
> > > out-of-tree code.
> > Yeah... we all know it's not that simple :)
> >
> > The in-tree driver versions are meaningless and cause annoying churn
> > when people arbitrarily bump them. If we can get people to stop doing
> > that we'll be happy, that's all there is to it.
> >
> Perhaps it would be helpful if this standard was applied to all the drivers
> equally?  For example, I see that this week's ice driver update from Intel
> was accepted with no comment on their driver version bump.

Thanks, it is another great example of why trusting driver authors,
even experienced, on specific topics is not an option.

>
> Look, if we want to stamp all in-kernel drivers with the kernel version,
> fine.  But let's do it in a way that doesn't break the out-of-tree driver
> ability to report something else.  Can we set up a macro for in-kernel
> drivers to use in their get_drvinfo callback and require drivers to use that
> macro?  Then the out-of-tree drivers are able to replace that macro with
> whatever they need.  Just don't forcibly bash the value from higher up in
> the stack.

The thing is that we don't consider in-kernel API as stable one, so
addition of new field which is not in use in upstream looks sketchy to
me, but I have an idea how to solve it.

Thanks

>
> sln
>