The linux-iscsi and open-iscsi developers would like to announce that they have combined forces on a single iSCSI initiator effort! This mail gives an overview of this combined effort and will be followed by a set of iSCSI patches the combined team submits for review as a candidate for inclusion into the mainline kernel. Background After some dialog with the developers on each team, it was decided that although each team started out with independent code and some differences in architecture, it was worth considering the possibility of combining the two efforts into one. Alternatives were considered for the combined architecture of the two projects, including adding an option for a kernel control plane. After discussions, it was decided by consensus that the open-iscsi architecture and code would be the best starting point for the "next gen" linux-iscsi project. The advantages of this starting point include open-iscsi's optimized I/O paths that were built from scratch, as well as incorporation of well tested iscsi-sfnet components for the control plane and userspace components. The combined open-iscsi and linux-iscsi teams believe this will result in the highest performing and most stable iSCSI stack for Linux. Overview of Combined Project This new combined effort will consist of the open-iscsi code and developers moving over to the linux-iscsi project on sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-iscsi/). The open-iscsi (http://www.open-iscsi.org) architecture will be the basis for the "next gen" of linux-iscsi, which will be numbered the linux-iscsi-5.x release series. Release Numbering If you were following the open-iscsi series, here is the mapping between the open-iscsi numbering and the linux-iscsi-5.x numbering: - open-iscsi-0.2 == linux-iscsi-5.0.0.2 Kernel Submission The kernel component of the first release in this linux-iscsi 5.x series will follow shortly, and the combined teams wish to submit this as a candidate for inclusion into the mainline kernel. If you've reviewed the previous open-iscsi patch set, you'll find that this patchset is very similar, with previous reviewer comments incorporated. Thanks. - The combined open-iscsi and linux-iscsi teams