From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PYHFG-0006bf-3x for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:04:38 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8E969E0759 for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:04:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mailgate.caprica.metux.de (caprica.metux.de [82.165.128.25]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49465E06C8 for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 11:07:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mailgate.caprica.metux.de (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mailgate.caprica.metux.de (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id oBUB31fP018693 for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:03:02 +0100 Received: (from uucp@localhost) by mailgate.caprica.metux.de (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) with UUCP id oBUB2kAf018680 for gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:02:46 +0100 Received: (from weigelt@localhost) by nibiru.metux.de (8.12.10/8.12.10) id oBUB0gqN013088 for gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:00:42 +0100 Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:00:42 +0100 From: Enrico Weigelt To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-embedded] Is a compilation depend on the running kernel? Message-ID: <20101230110042.GB28981@nibiru.local> References: <20101226164902.15510.qmail@stuge.se> <20101230063952.GC10596@nibiru.local> <20101230071340.29763.qmail@stuge.se> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20101230071340.29763.qmail@stuge.se> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-Terror: bin laden, kill bush, Briefbombe, Massenvernichtung, KZ, X-Nazi: Weisse Rasse, Hitlers Wiederauferstehung, 42, X-Antichrist: weg mit schaeuble, ausrotten, heiliger krieg, al quaida, X-Killer: 23, endloesung, Weltuntergang, X-Doof: wer das liest ist doof X-Archives-Salt: 514e5b23-06b7-41ac-8626-f4d300d63beb X-Archives-Hash: a66216d84aded225c6fb1d45e88c041f * Peter Stuge schrieb: > > No, they can't, especially in embedded world. > > Obviously there is a limit to every definition of stable. But it is > my impression that Linux does not change API at a whim. True. But there are cases where old APIs/ABIs cease to exist (eg. binaries built for 2.6.19 wont run on current kernels anymore). In embedded world it often becomes even trickier: kernels tend to have certain vendor-specific extensions/interfaces which are too bleeding edge to have an stable API/ABI yet. (have several such cases in a current project) > > The biggest problem is certain ill-designed packages which try to > > guess something from the *running* system. This can only be solved > > in the source. > > Sure, and this is a problem with individual packages. Not so much > with the kernel. The packages can be fixed. ACK. And the packages *should* be fixed, instead of trying to work around in dubious ways (eg. certain autoconf'ed packages which have certain fallback defaults in AC_TRY_RUN calls, which are likely to be wrong). > > > Do you have a problem with some package? > > > > Just from the tip of my head, in recent years: network utils, > > drbd, etc, ... > > Because the recommended API to use was changed, or? The actual API changed. On DRBD it seems to change quite frequently. Had to cope with that in a recent project at a big ISP which used DRBD on several thousands of boxes with differing configurations, we had to wrappers in front of the DRBD userland tools the right version is taken for the running kernel (otherwise we'd have to update kernel and userland *together* and cold-reboot immediately, which is far from being desirable in enterprise environments). cu -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enrico Weigelt, metux IT service -- http://www.metux.de/ phone: +49 36207 519931 email: weigelt@metux.de mobile: +49 151 27565287 icq: 210169427 skype: nekrad666 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Embedded-Linux / Portierung / Opensource-QM / Verteilte Systeme ----------------------------------------------------------------------