Re: [PATCH] Add boot command line parsing for the e100 driver

Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
Mon, 19 May 2003 12:40:19 -0400


On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 05:33:23PM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 12:30:52PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > >
> > > Don't do this. 2.5 has the module_parame stuff that works for both
> > > static and modular drivers. Just convert e100 to it.
> >
> > ...which totally screws people trying to keep 2.4 and 2.5
> > sources as close as possible.
>
> So what? It's not that we APIs don't change under Linux.

If you look carefully, source back-compatibility has been preserved
for network drivers. Most API changes are accepted without comment
because they are easily made back-compatible. The module_param API
breaks that.

Network driver-land is different from SCSI-land, where the amount of 2.5
differences is so high one more change doesn't make a difference.

> > If all modules do not require new module_param changes, then logically,
> > e100 does not either. And e100 has a better argument than most against
> > such changes.
>
> Again, we don't convert old drivers just for the sake of it. But

Well...

> instead of adding such horrible cruft Corey did it should just use the
> proper API.

An API already exists, and it is source compatible between 2.4 and 2.5:
ethX=.... on the kernel command line.

The proper patch would pick up options from there.

Jeff

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