Re: [PATCH v2 1/6] virtio_balloon: transitional interface

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Wed Apr 01 2015 - 06:28:39 EST


On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 12:22:44PM +0200, Cornelia Huck wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Apr 2015 11:43:46 +0200
> "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 07:53:14PM +1030, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > > "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > > > On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 02:17:23PM +1030, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > > >> I would leave the device *exactly* as is, ugly structure packing and
> > > >> all.
> > > >
> > > > But why? It's going to be used for years, might as well make it clean?
> > >
> > > Because the only spec which currently exists says to do that.
> >
> > OK but the only spec which currently exists also says it's a legacy only
> > device, so driver must not set VERSION_1. So surely, we can make minor
> > changes when VERSION_1 is set, like we did for other devices.
>
> But we don't plan to replace the other devices, so it makes sense to do
> some changes for 1.0.

I'm not sure what the above says. Do you agree with
making minor changes in device behaviour?
Also to be clear, I think this is 1.1 material.

> >
> > Let me post the latest patches I'm working on,
> > see what you think then.
> >
> > > We do
> > > need a new virtio memballoon spec, but it'll look nothing like this
> > > anyway.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Rusty.
> >
> > I think it's going to have significantly different semantics, too,
> > so not much value in making that one work with current
> > drivers, right?
> >
>
> So why not just keep virtio-balloon as-is and just specify endianness
> etc. for 1.0? Keeps the old drivers going without hacks,
> and we can
> start with a fresh driver for the new virtio-balloon.

Well it doesn't really, we need cpu_to_virtio in a bunch of
places anyway.

So I kind of prefer making it clean, even just to avoid setting a bad
example for other devices.

Let me post the new patch where it's all fixed in a cleaner way, and
everyone can discuss whether it's too much work.

--
MST
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/