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Re: Linux kernel version support policy
- From: Aurelien Jarno <aurel32 at debian dot org>
- To: Allan McRae <allan at archlinux dot org>
- Cc: Rich Felker <dalias at aerifal dot cx>, Mike Frysinger <vapier at gentoo dot org>, David Miller <davem at davemloft dot net>, libc-alpha at sourceware dot org, joseph at codesourcery dot com
- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:30:55 +0100
- Subject: Re: Linux kernel version support policy
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <Pine dot LNX dot 4 dot 64 dot 1401272237400 dot 14736 at digraph dot polyomino dot org dot uk> <3591302 dot 5mrdmfoV2Y at vapier> <20140127 dot 161754 dot 1207156302138039240 dot davem at davemloft dot net> <3104304 dot iNEJkBTBu7 at vapier> <20140129021016 dot GN24286 at brightrain dot aerifal dot cx> <52E88CB5 dot 1030007 at archlinux dot org>
On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 03:08:05PM +1000, Allan McRae wrote:
> On 29/01/14 12:10, Rich Felker wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 07:47:13PM -0500, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> >> On Monday, January 27, 2014 16:17:54 David Miller wrote:
> >>> From: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
> >>>> i still see people running 2.6.18 kernels today. usually in server
> >>>> environments like old RHEL 5 or OpenVZ or Xen instances.
> >>>
> >>> Are they upgrading to current versions of glibc?
> >>
> >> yes. they control the userland, not the kernel.
> >
> > While I'd like to bump the requirement, I see this as the best
> > argument for NOT doing so. There are a lot of environments, especially
> > cheap OpenVZ-based hosting, where the userland is provided completely
> > by the customer/user who WANTS to be up-to-date, but who's stuck with
> > a backwards kernel from their hosting provider.
> >
>
> This is an issue I had when I set the minimum kernel version to 2.6.32
> in the Arch Linux glibc build. A lot of OpenVZ users were unhappy and I
> believe an unofficial repository was set up to maintain a parallel glibc
> package with 2.6.18 support.
>
> Anyway, lets look at what various Linux distributions do with
> --enable-kernel:
>
> Arch Linux: 2.6.32
> Debian: 2.6.32
For Debian the policy we have up to now is to set --enable-kernel to the
kernel version shipped in release N-2. Given the freeze time, glibc 2.20
has some chances to be in Jessie, so --enable-kernel 2.6.32 would be
fine. For glibc 2.21 or later, Debian will be fine with --enable-kernel
up to 3.2.
Aurelien
--
Aurelien Jarno GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
aurelien@aurel32.net http://www.aurel32.net