[SSI-users] Re: [SSI-devel] Binary release and future kernel development

[Brian J. W. <Bri...@hp...>]

Aneesh Kumar K.V wrote:
> We didn't hear from any of them. But there were two people who requested
> not to switch to Redhat kernel. So the voting is 2:0 :)

I'm not suggesting the entire OpenSSI project switch to the Red Hat 
kernel. My concern is that I don't have enough time to support both the 
vanilla and Red Hat kernels. I'm more interested in the Red Hat kernel, 
so I'm choosing to support that.

The OpenSSI project is a community effort. If the community is 
interested in supporting the vanilla kernel, then someone from the 
community will step up to make sure it happens. :) I can help him/her by 
describing the procedures I use to roll releases and merge changes from 
one branch to another. After he demonstrates the quality of his work, I 
can give him full admin access so he can support the vanilla kernel 
without any help from me. Doing this is a good way for someone new to 
contribute to the project, and it frees up my time to pursue what I want 
to do. ;)

> That brings other problem. John has been really good at taking care of
> all architecture when moving to higher kernel releases. Whenever he does
> that he takes care of all the archs. ( Great work!!!).

If John doesn't merge with new vanilla kernels anymore, that just means 
someone else will have to do it. :) It's not necessarily that difficult. 
CVS does most of the work. For any difficult conflicts that arise during 
the merge, I'm sure John, myself, or any other developer can offer 
advice on how to resolve the conflict.

> Again from what others/projects are doing i see most of them working on
> vanilla linux kernel . 

Most kernel projects are drivers and filesystems. I doubt they have 
serious portability problems between vanilla and distribution-specific 
kernels. Of those that are not drivers or filesystems, most only touch 
one or two subsystems. Therefore it's not terribly difficult for a 
talented user of an average kernel project to apply their patch against 
a Red Hat kernel and get it to work.

OTOH, OpenSSI has to touch almost everything to create the illusion that 
the cluster is a single machine. Without some knowledge about how 
OpenSSI works, it's virtually impossible for the same user to accomplish 
the same feat with its vanilla kernel patch. I know this because even 
John had to take a few days to do the initial port to the RH kernel. ;)

> But One thing I would like to say is that, if you are sure that we can 
> do early/frequent releases and easy installable STABLE RPMS by switching
> the redhat kernel, then my vote is to switch to redhat kernel. That make
> the voting result 2:1 ;-)

The RPM releases will definitely be much easier to do, which will allow 
me to do them more often. Hopefully they will also be more stable. The 
more development that's done on the RH branch, the more likely this will 
be true. ;)

Brian