[Ocfs2-users] ocfs2 custom builds

[Randy Ramsdell]

Sunil Mushran wrote:
> What's wrong with using ocfs2 bundled with the kernel?
>

Top posting argh.

I find that upgrading a "driver" by using a completely different kernel
a little overkill. What happens when we need a better ocfs2 driver and
the distro only has ocfs2 three versions back? Well, we build from
source, and don't have to worry about downloading the latest kernel
release, which doesn't include the patches that the distro has included
which are sometimes needed. To upgrade to a recent version of ocfs2 on a
distro that uses an old version requires that we abandon the distro
kernel, download pristine kernel source, and compile/install from there.
Once again this seems way overkill and somehow microsoft'ish. We need a
driver and only the driver sometimes. This same problem exists with
other software packages, such as spam, email virus detection or
filesystem drivers that need to be upgraded more frequently than what I
see currently with most package based distros. As an example, the
latest version we have currently available in the kernels we use is
v1.2.3, but we run v1.2.5 since I compile and create rpms for them. I
would really like to see the source remain compilable just in case we
cannot upgrade the complete OS version or distro to one that contains a
more recent ocfs2 version.

Thanks,
Randy Ramsdell



> Randy Ramsdell wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> >From the main ocfs2 site, I read this.
>>
>> <quote>
>> For users building from OCFS2 1.2.x tarballs
>> <http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/files/source/v1.2/> with kernels
>> 2.6.14 or later, use the following make command:
>>
>>     make GENERIC_DELETE_INODE_NOT_TRUNCATES=1
>>
>> NOTE: OCFS2 1.2 does not build with kernels 2.6.20 or later. Use the
>> version bundled with that kernel. All patch fixes for OCFS2 applicable
>> to this kernel version and later are maintained here
>> <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mfasheh/ocfs2/backports/>.
>>
>> </quote>
>>
>> Does this mean that after systems upgrade to kernel 2.6.20 we will
>> /only/ be able to use the kernel supplied ocfs2 version and must upgrade
>> the kernel to use a newer release?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Randy Ramsdell
>>
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>