[SSI] FYI: Kernel branch for Red Hat adaptation

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

As a part of rolling a binary release based on Red Hat's 2.4.18-18.7.x
kernel, John has had to make some changes to the SSI 0.7.5 code. Not all
of these changes are relevant to the vanilla 2.4.18 kernel from
kernel.org, so they should not be checked into the trunk of the
repository.

I propose branching the repository every time we do a release based on a
new Red Hat kernel. The root of the branch will always be a released SSI
version on the trunk, such as 0.7.5. Along the branch will be various
releases of the SSI code adapted to a particular Red Hat kernel.

This diagram should clarify things somewhat:

       |
       |
0.8.0  +-----+------------
       |  20.7.x_0.8.0r1
       |
       |  ------+-------------
       | |  20.7.x_0.7.5r1
0.7.5  +<
       | |
       |  ---+------------------+----------
       |   18.7.x_0.7.5r1   18.7.x_0.7.5r2
       |

The first branch is rooted in the 0.7.5 release. It includes changes to
0.7.5 to make it work with Red Hat's 2.4.18-18.7.x kernel. The first Red
Hat-based release is 18.7.x_0.7.5r1. Some bugs are discovered in the
adaptation, so a subsequent release (18.7.x_0.7.5r2) is done to make SSI
work better with a Red Hat kernel.

Later it might be decided to adapt SSI 0.7.5 to Red Hat's 2.4.18-20.7.x
kernel. A new branch is created. The adaptations made on the earlier
branch can be carried forward. This is done by taking a diff between
18.7.x_0.7.5r2 and the root, and applying it to the root of the new
branch. After doing this, some more changes might be needed before
releasing 20.7.x_0.7.5r1.

After the hypothetical 0.8.0 release of SSI, another release might be
done on Red Hat's 2.4.18-20.7.x kernel. This would be done on a new
brach rooted in the 0.8.0 release. The adaptations on the earlier branch
can be carried forward in the same way as before.

Hopefully this makes my proposal clear. Are there any comments?

-Brian