Re: Special place for tird-party modules.

[Valdis . Kletnieks]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:14:24 +0200, Goran Cengic <cengic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  said:

> I do understand that many developers have several kernel version installed at
> the same time but is it possible to share between the versions at least the 
> modules that are not developed as the part of the kernel?
> 
> If I'm missing something cruical please point it out to me.

What you're missing is the reason for modversions to exist - the fact that the
kernel API *does* change between releases, and even within the same source tree
(UP vs SMP builds, for instance).  If we supported what you're suggesting, then
the following *will* happen:

1) Binary module for 2.6.N is released that uses an API that takes 5 parameters.
2) 2.6.N+1 comes out, and said API has another parameter added (see the recent
tweak-fest for elf_map() for an actual example).
3) User loads old binary into kernel.
4) Kernel OOPs when it dereferences the non-existent 6th parameter that wasn't
passed by the un-updated binary.

Attachment: pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature