Subject: Re: [vserver] vserver git server and misc. thoughts
From: "Daniel Hokka Zakrisson" <daniel@hozac.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:18:00 +0200 (CEST)

Adam Majer wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Would it be helpful if we actually have a public GIT server setup and
> have the patches there instead one giant, unworkable monster patch? I'm
> willing to set this up provided people will use it. Or at least people
> send patches and commits to it instead of that kernel-diff-monster!

We already have git.linux-vserver.org, what's wrong with that? You also have the split
patches instead of the "giant monster patch", with one delta per feature (essentially).

> As to paying Herbert to port vserver to latest kernel, no offense, but
> that may not be a good idea unless you want to hire Herbert. I've seen
> this already in other projects and it did not work out so well. For
> example, grsecurity. As far as I can tell, development stalled there.
> Kind of like it stalled in vserver.

Rebasing is _usually_ not a super big deal, it takes a couple of days to get it right.
Recent kernels changed too much though, requiring certain core functionality to be
rewritten from scratch (XFS attributes, CPU scheduler, etc.).

> If you are willing to hire a vserver developer to get things moving,
> please do. But one-time "contract" doesn't work long term.
>
> So, either,
>
>  1. people start paying people to get vserver work done, or
>  2. people start to volunteer time to get things done.
>
> Either way works. But having pledge drives (or what seem to be pledge
> drives) just indicates the project is in its death-throws.

This is a special case. When large chunks need to be rewritten, it takes longer to get
it done. And when real life interferes...

> Now, regarding actual work on stuff. Adrian Bunk has been maintaining
> the 2.6.16.x kernel tree and will continue to maintain it for a bit. Is
> it feasible to backport vs.2.2 branch back to that stable tree?

2.2 uses namespaces that are not present in the 2.6.16 kernel. You'd be better off
basing it on 2.0.3-rc1 for 2.6.16.

-- 
Daniel Hokka Zakrisson