svn commit: r255219 - in head: contrib/tcpdump lib/libc lib/libc/capability lib/libc/include lib/libc/sys lib/libprocstat sbin/dhclient sbin/hastd sys/amd64/linux32 sys/bsm sys/cddl/compat/opensola...

[Julian Elischer]

On 1/2/14, 8:34 PM, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 02, 2014 at 11:23:55AM -0800, Alfred Perlstein wrote:
>>
>> Of course the problem is that when we move to
>> (ASN.1/libnv/ctf/YAML/JSON/XML/etc) we will break ABI compatibility too,
>> or introduce tons of compatibility code that will rot...
>>
>> I agree, however there is a very easy way to fix it for the time being.
>> Let's not be binary about it "well it's going to have to break, so let's
>> break it!" when such an easy way to not break it exists.  It should be
>> "let's see if there's a non-intrusive way of not breaking it" and the
>> answer to that seems to be "yes".
> If parts of ABI is broken, then why spend efforts trying to keep other
> parts stable ?  You already have random set of binaries broken, sometimes
> in subtle way.  Then, making other interfaces stable is just a waste.
>
> ABI stability is a yes/no proposition, you cannot have it partly done.
> Personally, I do not want to spend a time on hobbyist system.
>
> BTW, to point out obvious thing, Linux has almost perfect ABI stability
> and forward compatibility.  It is pity to see that our people do not
> understand the importance and benefits of it.

I always assume that there is a subset of programs that will not run 
in jails of different major releases, and that must be replaced by 
statically linked versions of the new ones..  these include ifconfig, 
netstat, ps, top and other similar programs.