Re: [RFC] Add kernel<->userspace ABI stability documentation

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 08:27:52AM +0100, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-02-28 at 16:23 -0800, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 02:39:29PM +0300, Nikita Danilov wrote:
> > > Greg KH writes:
> > > 
> > > [...]
> > > 
> > >  > +
> > >  > +  stable/
> > >  > +	This directory documents the interfaces that have determined to
> > >  > +	be stable.  Userspace programs are free to use these interfaces
> > >  > +	with no restrictions, and backward compatibility for them will
> > >  > +	be guaranteed for at least 2 years.  Most simple interfaces
> > >  > +	(like syscalls) are expected to never change and always be
> > >  > +	available.
> > > 
> > > What about separating "stable" ("guaranteed for at least 2 years") and
> > > "standard" (core unix interface is not going to change ever)?
> > 
> > Why?  Would that mean that the POSIX-like syscalls would only be in
> > "standard"?  What else would you think would be in that category?
> 
> that sounds wrong. If you want posix behavior, use glibc. Not the kernel
> directly. It's that simple. The kernel tends to follow posix mostly, to
> allow glibc to do this job without too much hoops, but it's glibc that
> provides the final posix API to the application. And it should be that
> way.

Yes, sorry, that is much more correct.

greg k-h
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