On Fri, Jul 08, 2022 at 10:42:08AM +0200, Fabio Valentini wrote: > On Fri, Jul 8, 2022 at 10:37 AM Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek > <zbyszek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > On Fri, Jul 08, 2022 at 04:15:51PM +0800, Zamir Sun wrote: > > > On Fri, Jul 8, 2022 at 4:14 PM Zamir Sun <zsun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jul 8, 2022 at 4:11 PM Florian Weimer <fweimer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > * Zamir Sun: > > > > > > > > > > > Hi Zbyszek, > > > > > > > > > > > > According to the policy, kernel modules are not allowed > > > > > > > > > > > > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/what-can-be-packaged/#_no_external_kernel_modules > > > > > > > > > > That section talks about pre-built binaries. The question here is about > > > > > kernel module sources. > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi Florian, > > > > > > > > In the section "No external kernel modules" (which is before the > > > > pre-build binary section), I did not see it mentioning pre-build or > > > > not. > > > > > > > > "Fedora allows only a single kernel package; packages containing > > > > alternate kernels are not allowed in the distribution. If there are > > > > kernel features which would be generally useful, please communicate > > > > with the Kernel Team." > > > > > > sorry, copy-paste issue > > > > > > "Fedora does not allow kernel modules to be packaged outside of the > > > main kernel package. You should communicate with the Kernel Team > > > regarding enabling additional kernel modules." > > > > I guess it'd be easiest if the kernel maintainers chimed in directly: > > /cc kernel-maint@fp.o > > > > I always understood the packaging guideline to be a mechanism to prevent > > users assuming that a kernel module installed from the repos is supported > > by the Fedora kernel maintainers. If the user has to compile the module from > > sources, it should be clear enough that this is outside of scope of support. > > I'm not so sure about that. akmods would fit that definition too: > package only contains sources, user compiles them on their local > machine - albeit automatically, in this case. > And akmods are only shipped by rpmfusion. I would recommend doing the > same here: Package the (optional?) kernel module as an akmod and ship > it via rpmfusion. > > However, if the kernel module is *not* optional, then it's not allowed > in Fedora repositories at all, given our "MUST NOT include software > that is not functional without dependencies on packages from > third-party repositories", and in that case, I'd move the whole > package to rpmfusion. So… the question becomes: do we still want this guideline? There is no general _legal_ or _technical_ reason to not allow external kernel modules to be packaged. (In some specific cases, the license might be "bad", but that'd be specific to the module, just as for any other software type). Why do we make people to jump through hoops? We don't have this kind of rule for non-kernel software. For example, I'm allowed to package almost any extension or alternative for apache httpd. PROPOSAL: Drop the blanket prohibition of packaging of kernel modules. Only disallow packaging of kernel modules in specific scenarios: - the module is an alternative version of a module that is already packaged in Fedora - there are technical or legal reasons not to package a module (the license is not FOSS, the license is unclear or suspicious) With the following caveats: - the package must clearly state that the module is non-upstream and is not supported by fedora kenrel maintainers - non-upstream kernel modules must add a taint to the kernel that a non-upstream module was loaded, and the kernel team is free to close or reassign any bug reports reported with the taint. Zbyszek _______________________________________________ packaging mailing list -- packaging@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to packaging-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/packaging@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure
