svn commit: r225458 - in stable/8/sys: dev/usb dev/usb/quirk dev/usb/storage sys

[Robert N. M. Watson]

On 10 Sep 2011, at 12:10, Hans Petter Selasky wrote:

>> For most other classes of hardware device driver framework KPIs --
>> especially things like PCI bus attachment, busdma, CAM, ifnet, and GEOM
>> frameworks, our MFC rules would strictly disallow this sort of change, on
>> the grounds that it is our KBI policy that we not break common classes of
>> third-party device drivers (i.e., require them to be recompiled).  My
>> suspicion is that we should be applying the same rules to the USB
>> framework -- however, I don't know if we have any third-party USB device
>> drivers?
>> 
>> (If we do, then this change should not have been MFC'd.)
> 
> I understand your point. The change is not breaking any KPIs towards 
> userspace. The structure in question is only used within the kernel and kernel 
> modules.


Right -- exactly my point. If this change breaks third-party compiled USB device drivers, then our current approach to device driver KBIs does not allow it to be MFC'd in this form. Are there ways you can reformulate the change to avoid breaking those drivers? Sometimes this can be done by adding new symbols, rather than replacing currently symbols, although mileage varies.

Robert