Re: [gentoo-kernel] vanilla-kernel sources should not be marked stable for obsolete versions

[Greg KH]

On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 04:56:39AM -0400, Anthony G. Basile wrote:
> On 06/21/2013 11:47 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> >On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 09:54:46PM -0400, Anthony G. Basile wrote:
> >>The bug where this was discussed is
> >>
> >>https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338739
> >
> >Thanks for the link, unfortunatly, things have changed since then, with
> >stable kernel releases happening much more frequently now (instead of
> >about ever 2-3 weeks, it's now, 1-2 releases a week.
> >
> >So the chance for an arch team to mark anything is going to be tough.
> >
> >greg k-h
> >
>
> I've been following, but I can't say I've been following closely.
> I'm on the stable{,-commits}@vger list and the rate at which this
> stuff is coming is too fast for human consumption.

So, as I am the one creating all of that "stuff", does that mean I'm
somehow not "human"?  :)

> We could just drop stabilization of vanilla-sources and have people
> follow ~arch.  That might be closer to the meaning of ~testing vs
> stable in other packages: other upstreams push out releases they
> consider stable, but we don't consider them stable within Gentoo
> until our QA team tests.

I agree.

> Another reason for dropping all vanilla-sources to ~arch is that we
> have some Gentoo specific needs that upstream will not and should
> not accept, eg we are making greater use of extended attributes in
> our package management, so we need end-to-end copying of xattrs.
> This means preserving certain namespaces (beyond security.* and
> trusted.*) on tmpfs for emerge.  Gentoo users that use
> vanilla-sources will loose those xattr values making vanilla-sources
> ~ with respect to the rest of Gentoo.

What?  So we are now relying on kernel patches that are not merged
upstream for proper operation of at Gentoo-based system?  That's news to
me, I've _never_ run a gentoo-based kernel on my boxes in all of my
years as a Gentoo developer, with no problems, and I don't think we want
to require this in the future, do you?

Also, why aren't these patches upstream?  Were they rejected?  Just not
ready?  No one submitted them?

Don't ever try to differentiate at the kernel level from other distros,
it's not worth it, and will cause problems in the end.  The other
distros have realized this, I thought we were smarter than that...

thanks,

greg k-h