[CentOS-devel] https://blog.centos.org/2020/12/future-is-centos-stream/

Wed Dec 9 19:01:10 UTC 2020
Brendan Conoboy <blc at redhat.com>

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 10:04 AM Phil Perry <pperry at elrepo.org> wrote:

> On 09/12/2020 17:40, Stef Walter wrote:
> > On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 6:33 PM David Hrbáč <david-lists at hrbac.cz
> > <mailto:david-lists at hrbac.cz>> wrote:
> >
> >         I don't use CentOS Stream, I use RHEL. I use RHEL to develop
> >         software
> >         for RHEL and compatible OS clones, including CentOS. If Stream
> >         retains
> >         binary compatibility, and specifically kernel ABI compatibility,
> >         then
> >         the users of the software packages we develop can continue to
> >         use them.
> >         If not, they can't. Simple as that. So please don't push rolling
> >         kernel
> >         updates to Stream that break the kernel ABI.
> >
> >
> > Indeed. If any such broken change (eg: that breaks kernel ABI) is pushed
> > to Stream, that is treated as a serious problem by the RHEL engineering
> > teams. We have the necessary process in place to QE test changes before
> > they arrive in CentOS Stream.
> >
> > I understand this fact alone is not a panacea for all the problems
> > people are highlighting. But it does seem to cover your use case. From a
> > regression, stability, ABI, and kernel ABI perspective, it is the goal
> > and focus of many of us in RHEL Engineering for CentOS Stream to be
> stable.
>
> Hi Stef,
>
> Thank you for your response. You do realise I'm not just talking about
> whitelisted kernel symbols, but the whole kernel ABI?
>
> Whilst the RHEL kernel ABI whitelist is great in principle, in practice
> I am yet to find a kernel driver that uses only symbols on the
> whitelist. As I said previously, every single driver I maintain broke
> between RHEL8.2 and RHEL8.3 due to changes in the kernel ABI.
>

Yes, the symbol list is helpful, but it's rarely 100%, so we're going to
have to iteratively do better.

Just to be clear, I don't think this is your job or David's job to solve,
just knowing that if we collectively solve it, it makes CentOS Stream a
more viable option for you and others was the insight I was hoping for.
There are probably many of these, but this is the one I'm hearing
repeatedly in this thread.  In the months ahead there are going to be
numerous, uh, "opportunities", to solve these sorts of things together :-)
If the kind of thing you can bring is what does and doesn't work for you
and why, I'll take it.

-- 
Brendan Conoboy / Linux Project Lead / Red Hat, Inc.
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