From: Leon Romanovsky <leon@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2020 09:20:28 +0200 > From: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > > In order to stop useless driver version bumps and unify output > presented by ethtool -i, let's set default version string. > > As Linus said in [1]: "Things are supposed to be backwards and > forwards compatible, because we don't accept breakage in user > space anyway. So versioning is pointless, and only causes > problems." > > They cause problems when users start to see version changes > and expect specific set of features which will be different > for stable@, vanilla and distribution kernels. > > Distribution kernels are based on some kernel version with extra > patches on top, for example, in RedHat world this "extra" is a lot > and for them your driver version say nothing. Users who run vanilla > kernels won't use driver version information too, because running > such kernels requires knowledge and understanding. > > Another set of problems are related to difference in versioning scheme > and such doesn't allow to write meaningful automation which will work > sanely on all ethtool capable devices. > > Before this change: > [leonro@erver ~]$ ethtool -i eth0 > driver: virtio_net > version: 1.0.0 > After this change and once ->version assignment will be deleted > from virtio_net: > [leonro@server ~]$ ethtool -i eth0 > driver: virtio_net > version: 5.5.0-rc6+ > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/ksummit-discuss/CA+55aFx9A=5cc0QZ7CySC4F2K7eYaEfzkdYEc9JaNgCcV25=rg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rdma/20200122152627.14903-1-michal.kalderon@xxxxxxxxxxx/T/#md460ff8f976c532a89d6860411c3c50bb811038b > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rdma/20200127060835.GA570@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Signed-off-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Applied to net-next, thanks.
