cvs commit: src/sys/netgraph netgraph.h ng_base.c ng_source.c ng_uni_cust.hsrc/sys/netgraph/bluetooth/l2cap ...

[Scott Long]

Gleb Smirnoff wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 26, 2004 at 08:24:02AM -0700, Scott Long wrote:
> S> One of the stated goals for 5-STABLE was that we would retain API and
> S> ABI stability except when absolutely neccessary when fixing bugs or
> S> security holes.  I know that we didn't explicitily name netgraph in
> S> the list of 'stable' subsystems, but it was assumed to be part of
> S> 'networking'.  Can you please explain why this ABI change is required
> S> for 5-STABLE?
> 
> We are going to test netgraph(4) for mpsafeness soon. Without this change
> it is impossible to turn netgraph ISR to MPSAFE. We are not going to enable
> MPSAFE netgraph ISR in RELENG_5, but we want to bring RELENG_5 to a state,
> when a small a 1-line patch enables MPSAFE ISR. In this case users running
> RELENG_5 will have an easy opportunity to test.
> 
> I'm afraid that CURRENT userbase does not run netgraph widely, and thus
> we will not find resuorces for thourough testing.
> 
> I understand all problems caused by API change, but we need this to go on.
> 
> P.S. And only a small number of nodes affected.
> 

I understand the desire for forward progress here, but we did declare 
API and ABI stability.  Is there any way to achieve your goals and still
keep backwards compatiblity?  Maybe create a new interface that will be
the default in 6.0, and allow 5.x to be the transition point to it?  I'm
going to ask that this be reverted otherwise.

Scott