[CentOS-devel] RFC: kmods SIG Proposal

Mon May 24 20:32:26 UTC 2021
Patrick Riehecky <riehecky at fnal.gov>

I'm loving the ideas/thoughts/etc here!

Perhaps, we could add a Roadmap item for non-GPLv2 stuff?  Personally,
there are just a few items that I'd love to have which are not GPLv2. 
I'd hate to block on sorting this out now, when I suspect there will be
some more input/concerns/etc.

Pat

On Mon, 2021-05-24 at 22:10 +0200, Peter Georg wrote:
> 
> 
> On 23/05/2021 21.00, Jeffrey E Altman wrote:
> > On 5/23/2021 10:32 AM, Peter Georg 
> > (peter.georg at physik.uni-regensburg.de) wrote:
> > > Thanks to everyone for the input so far. I updated the original 
> > > proposal to reflect your input. In case I forgot something,
> > > please let 
> > > me know.
> > 
> > This looks very good so far.  One comment below:
> > 
> > > === In-kernel modules not enabled for CentOS Stream ===
> > > Many in-kernel modules are simply disabled for the CentOS Stream 
> > > kernel. This may either be due to  drivers being deprecated and 
> > > removed compared to older CentOS major releases or never being
> > > enabled 
> > > in the first place. This SIG aims to provide these in-kernel
> > > drivers 
> > > as external kernel modules to enable CentOS Stream running on a 
> > > broader range of available hardware and provide other beneficial 
> > > functionality.
> > > 
> > > === Third-party external kernel modules ===
> > 
> > Might I suggest "out-of-kernel modules" instead of "third-party
> > external 
> > kernel modules".
> 
> modules". "out-of-tree kernel modules" is probably a better
> description 
> than "thrid-party external kernel modules". Hence I'm thinking about 
> doing a s/thrid-party external/out-of-tree/g. But then I probably
> should 
> also s/in-kernel/in-tree kernel/g.
> 
> Opinions?
> 
> Dicussing details like this, I think we are on a good way :)
> 
> > 
> > > This SIG also aims to provide third-party kernel modules for
> > > CentOS 
> > > Stream not (yet) available in upstream kernel.
> > 
> > The "not (yet)" makes me wonder what the criteria for inclusion
> > are.  Is 
> > it a requirement that the module might be accepted into the
> > upstream 
> > kernel if submitted?  If this is the intent, I believe that would 
> > exclude two categories of modules.  First, modules that provide 
> > functionality already provided by an actively maintained in-kernel 
> > module.  Second, modules whose licenses are not listed in 
> > include/linux/license.h.
> 
> think it has been. I currently don't see why we should restrict the
> SIG 
> to modules that might be accepted into upstream kernel.
> The restriction to GPL v2 compatible licenses is there due to legal 
> reasons. Is there any reason why we should restrict ourselves to
> kernel 
> modules that might be accepted into upstream?
> 
> > 
> > Later on the "What's not in scope" section says:
> > 
> >  > * Third-party kernel modules with a non GPL v2 compatible
> > license 
> > which is overly broad.  Might I suggest:
> > 
> > [BEGIN]
> > ==== Out-of-kernel modules =====
> > 
> > might be accepted into the upstream kernel if submitted.  This
> > category 
> > excludes:
> > 
> >   * modules whose primary functionality is already provided by an
> >     actively maintained in-kernel module.
> 
> This restriction might be problematic in some cases. E.g. if an
> existing 
> probably want to provide this kernel module even though the existing 
> in-kernel module has not yet been replaced in upstream (and
> especially 
> not been backported). A somewhat recent example: exFAT.
> 
> > 
> >   * modules whose licenses are not included in
> > include/linux/license.h
> >     (see license_is_gpl_compatible()).
> > [END]
> 
> I'd probably change this section only a litte bit to avoid confusion
> and 
> add an explanation for the restriction to GPL v2 copatible:
> 
> [BEGIN]
> === Out-of-tree kernel modules ===
> This SIG also aims to provide out-of-tree kernel modules for CentOS 
> legal reasons.
> [END]
> 
> The "GPL v2" restriction is mentioned twice in the description then. 
> However I think this might not be bad at all.
> 
> > 
> > I hope this is helpful.
> > 
> > Jeffrey Altman
> > 
> > 
> > 
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