Hi Greg, I'm glad that you brought up all those points and I don't pretend to have answers to all of them but I'll try to explain why we thought that creating a SIG might help the community as opposed to "clogging" it with another mailing list. >> Why? Seriously, why create yet-another-mailing-list-that-contains-no-real-work? The SIG's intention is to do real work and the first thing to do is to determine what (if any) that would be to help the community. One of the things I was thinking of organizing are "working meetings" where some ongoing discussions could be hashed out in a "live phone meeting" as opposed to long e-mail threads. OSDL has the infrastructure to support such calls. Also SIGs are not created to hang around for ever, the goal is to figure out what still needs to be done, write the code for it, get it submitted and accepted and disband. As you well know I have not been active in the Hotplug area and will need to first understand what the needs are and if the SIG can help along. For example I understand that most of the hotplug CPU code is written but it also seems that there hasn't been much testing done. Is that true? if yes why not? lack of equipment? lack of interest? lack of applications actually using Hotplug CPU (such as Instant capacity on demand)? For Hotplug IO subsystem, you mentioned >> "They said they will be posting code soon (no real rush, as there is no hardware >> shipping with this support yet.)". A lot of OSDL members have access to such hardware long before it hits the market, wouldn't it be helpful to test the code on real hw before submitting it? >> So, what is this group going to provide the Linux community that the others >> don't already cover? Why is it worth wasting people's time listening to a >> conference call discussing the fact that all of this work is already being >> done by other people, in other discussion areas, in the open? I think THAT will be a key point i.e. to find out what/if/how the SIG can help the community. I agree with you that there is no need to duplicate ongoing effort but I'm not convinced (yet?!? :-) that there isn't stuff that needs to be done for Hotplug that's still up for grabs. Also as I mentioned earlier the SIG might be used just to promote other forms of discussions other than the traditional mailing lists. For ex. I'm sure that the BOFs at OLS were very helpful, would it be feasible to organize a day (or more) of face to face discussions? I have a lot of homework to do but you already helped me greatly with your mail. I have an idea that I'll regret asking this but is there anything that you can think of that would complete or help along ongoing work? Thanks - Martine -----Original Message----- From: Greg KH [mailto:greg@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 3:08 PM To: Mary Edie Meredith; hotplug_sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: DCL Technical Board Subject: Re: [dcl_tech_board] Announcing HotPlug SIG On Tue, Aug 10, 2004 at 09:27:32AM -0700, Mary Edie Meredith wrote: > OSDL has decided to create a HotPlug Special Interest > Group (SIG) that will be lead by Dr. Martine Silbermann, > Principal Software Engineer, Linux Open Source Lab, HP. Why? Seriously, why create yet-another-mailing-list-that-contains-no-real-work? > The HotPlug SIG's goal is to identify and resolve HotPlug > related technical inhibitors to Linux adoption in the Data > Center, Desk Top, or Carrier Grade usage models. Initially > the group will examine what role OSDL can play beyond the > activities already underway. They plan to investigate > HotPlug CPU, memory, IO subsystem, and node support. Hoplug CPU: already supported in the main kernel tree. There is a mailing list already for this (can't remember what it is right now). What more needs to be talked about? Hotplug Memory: Has a very active mailing list <lhms-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> with lots of good discussions happening, and real code being posted there. What more needs to be talked about on a different list? Hotplug IO subsystem: Already works today in 2.4 and 2.6. Yeah, some special ia64 boxes are going to take this and "node" support to the next level and want to be hotplugged entirely. But again, there is already an active mailing list that the developers are all on <pcihpd-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> and I've had discussions with the people who are actually doing this work already at OLS. They said they will be posting code soon (no real rush, as there is no hardware shipping with this support yet.) PPC64 is already handling removing entire root PCI busses, see the questions and comments on the pcihpd and linux-kernel mailing lists for their status. > OSDL SIGs are open to all community members with no paper > work involved. Please invite developers who would be > interested to join in this effort with OSDL members. So, what is this group going to provide the Linux community that the others don't already cover? Why is it worth wasting people's time listening to a conference call discussing the fact that all of this work is already being done by other people, in other discussion areas, in the open? Seriously, why? I really don't see the point. greg k-h (who only joined the hotplug list so that he could post there, it's not an endorsement of the group at all.)
