Kernel Traffic #312 For 5 Jun 2005 By Zack Brown Table Of Contents * Standard Format * Text Format * XML Source * Mailing List Stats For This Week * Threads Covered 1. 4 May 2005 - 18 May 2005 (21 Linux 2.6.12-rc3-mm3 Released posts) 2. 9 May 2005 - 13 May 2005 (14 New mini_fo Virtual Filesystem posts) 3. 12 May 2005 - 16 May 2005 (33 Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm1 Released posts) 4. 12 May 2005 - 15 May 2005 (8 Net Driver Development Switches From posts) BitKeeper To git 5. 16 May 2005 (6 Linux 2.6.11.10 Released; Stable Tree posts) Migrates To git 6. 16 May 2005 (2 Net Driver Updates; Some git Tricks posts) 7. 18 May 2005 (1 Linux Cluster Summit 2005 Scheduled post) 8. 19 May 2005 (6 Resource List For A Kernel Newcomer posts) Mailing List Stats For This Week We looked at 1831 posts in 11MB. See the Full Statistics. There were 650 different contributors. 251 posted more than once. The average length of each message was 105 lines. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |The top posters of the week| The top subjects of the week were: | | were: | | |---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------| |46 posts in 203KB by miklos|84 posts in 346KB for "hyper-threading | |szeredi |vulnerability" | |43 posts in 150KB by lee |64 posts in 290KB for "[rcf] [patch] unprivileged| |revell |mount/umount" | |41 posts in 275KB by adrian|47 posts in 195KB for "[announce] hotplug-ng 002 | |bunk |release" | |39 posts in 222KB by andrew|38 posts in 184KB for "sync option destroys | |morton |flash!" | |36 posts in 827KB by yani |34 posts in 173KB for "[rfc] (how to) let idle | |ioannou |cpus sleep" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ These stats generated by mboxstats version 2.8 1. Linux 2.6.12-rc3-mm3 Released 4 May 2005 - 18 May 2005 (21 posts) Archive Link: "2.6.12-rc3-mm3" Topics: Device Mapper, Kernel Release Announcement, User-Mode Linux People: Andrew Morton Andrew Morton announced Linux 2.6.12-rc3-mm3, saying: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.12-rc3/ 2.6.12-rc3-mm3/ * device mapper updates * more UML updates * -mm seems unusually stable at present. 2. New mini_fo Virtual Filesystem 9 May 2005 - 13 May 2005 (14 posts) Archive Link: "[ANNOUNCE] mini_fo-0.6.0 overlay file system" Topics: Small Systems People: Markus Klotzbuecher, Eric Lammerts Markus Klotzbuecher said: mini_fo is a virtual kernel filesystem that can make read-only file systems writable. This is done by redirecting modifying operations to a writeable location called "storage directory", and leaving the original data in the "base directory" untouched. When reading, the file system merges the modifed and original data so that only the newest versions will appear. This occurs transparently to the user, who can access the data like on any other read-write file system. mini_fo was originally developed for use in embedded systems, and therefore is lightweight in terms of module size (~50K), memory usage and storage usage. Nevertheless it has proved usefull for other projects such as live cds or for sandboxing and testing. For more information and download of the sources visit the project page: http://www.denx.de/twiki/bin/view/Know/MiniFOHome ChangeLog for mini_fo-0-6-0: * support for 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. * mini_fo now implements all file system operations. * many bugfixes and code cleanup. Eric Lammerts liked this work, but pointed out, "The module taints the kernel because of MODULE_LICENSE("LGPL"). Since all your copyright statements say it's GPL software, better change this to "GPL"." Markus sent a patch to fix this. 3. Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm1 Released 12 May 2005 - 16 May 2005 (33 posts) Archive Link: "2.6.12-rc4-mm1" Topics: Kernel Release Announcement People: Andrew Morton, William Lee Irwin III Andrew Morton announced Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm1, saying: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.12-rc4/ 2.6.12-rc4-mm1/ * Added Herbert Xu's ipsec tree to the -mm lineup, as git-ipsec.patch * Lots of updates all over the place William Lee Irwin III pointed out that the uml-remove-elfh file was actually empty. Andrew replied, "Yeah, I couldn't work out a way of generating a patch which removes a zero-length file, so that's there as a reminder to ask Linus to remove the thing by hand." 4. Net Driver Development Switches From BitKeeper To git 12 May 2005 - 15 May 2005 (8 posts) Archive Link: "git repository for net drivers available" Topics: Version Control People: Jeff Garzik, Krzysztof Halasa Jeff Garzik said, "Although I have over 200 net driver patches to go through in my 'Pending' folder, I have fully converted the existing netdev-2.6 repository from BitKeeper to git. This includes the wireless-2.6 repository. rsync:// rsync.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/netdev-2.6.git" Krzysztof Halasa asked, "Do you prefer plain patches or GIT repository on kernel.org to merge for future (and "current") updates? I haven't set a public repo up yet, but it's a matter of seconds." Jeff replied, "For now, plain patches." 5. Linux 2.6.11.10 Released; Stable Tree Migrates To git 16 May 2005 (6 posts) Archive Link: "Linux 2.6.11.10" People: Greg KH, Dave Jones, Stephen Tweedie Greg KH said: Due to a recently announced security issue with the current kernel, we (the -stable team) are announcing the release of the 2.6.11.10 kernel. The diffstat and short summary of the fixes are below. I'll also be replying to this message with a copy of the patch between 2.6.11.9 and 2.6.11.10, as it is small enough to do so. Also, the 2.6.11.y tree is now being kept in git. It can be found at: rsync://rsync.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/linux-2.6.11.y.git and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: www.kernel.org/git/ (http://www.kernel.org/git/) One of the fixes was a root exploit in the raw device, credited to Dave Jones. Dave said, "I was just the bringer of bad news this time ;-). Stephen Tweedie spotted the real problem here, and based his patch on one from Jan Glauber." 6. Net Driver Updates; Some git Tricks 16 May 2005 (2 posts) Archive Link: "[git patches] 2.6.x net driver fixes" People: Jeff Garzik, Linus Torvalds Jeff Garzik said to Linus Torvalds: Here's a first experimental git push from me. The git URL is rsync:// rsync.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/netdev-2.6.git but it should be noted that I would like you to pull the 'misc-fixes' branch. I'm told that branches are supposed to live in .git/refs/heads, so there you will find netdev-2.6.git/refs/heads/misc-fixes. Does that work? Changelog and patch for review attached. Linus pulled Jeff's patches, and incorporated them into his own tree. He also replied: It's wonderful if you also do a "diffstat" on the thing, since my merge scripts will always show that to me, and I can verify at a glance that it matches what you thought you sent me. Also, if you are really nervous, the "git-diff-tree" thing is actually quite good at generating changelogs, so you can do something like this: git-rev-tree HEAD ^ORIG_HEAD | cut -d' ' -f2 | git-diff-tree -v -p --stdin | less -S which means: give me a list of all commits that are in HEAD but not in ORIG_HEAD (replace with whatever markers you have, in this case you'd use "misc-fixes" instead of HEAD and some marker - maybe the SHA1 - for my last base), then take just the SHA1 of that list of commits, and show a verbose diff of each of the commits with the patch. For example, the output of the above command (after I merged from you) is appended, so you can see exactly what I merged. 7. Linux Cluster Summit 2005 Scheduled 18 May 2005 (1 post) Archive Link: "[ANNOUNCE] Linux Cluster Summit 2005" Topics: Clustering People: Daniel Phillips, Heinz Mauelshagen Daniel Phillips said: Linux Cluster Summit 2005 June 20 and 21, Walldorf, Germany (Near Heidelberg) Sponsors: Red Hat, SAP AG, Oracle, HP, and Fujitsu-Siemens. The goal of the two-day Linux Cluster Summit workshop is to bring together the key individuals who can realize a general purpose clustering API for Linux, including, kernel components, userspace libraries and internal and external interfaces. Results of this workshop will be presented to the Kernel Summit the following month. The workshop is to be held in Walldorf, the hometown of SAP, Europe's biggest software company. This is in the south/central part of Germany, in an adjoining town of Heidelberg. Frankfurt and France (order the menu!) are within easy driving distance. It is very picturesque. There is a lot to see and do in the vicinity for those who are interested. We are planning a field trip for the day following the workshop for those who want to stay an extra day and see some sights. Details have not been finalized yet. Note that June 21 is the first day of tutorials at LinuxTag and June 22 is the LinuxTag Business Congress. You will be able to attend the rest of LinuxTag if you wish. It's free! Unfortunately, space is limited. We can accommodate about 100 attendees. Registration is by invitation for 70 participants, including those who attended last year, and 30 seats are available on a first come, first served basis. There is no charge for this workshop. You will only be need to arrange travel and accommodation. A list of recommended hotels and other accommodation will be posted here. The full agenda will be posted here, in the next few days: http://sourceware.org/cluster/events/summit2005/ If you are interested in attending, or require further information, please email: Daniel Phillips Heinz Mauelshagen 8. Resource List For A Kernel Newcomer 19 May 2005 (6 posts) Archive Link: "How start in Kernel Development" Topics: Microkernels: Mach People: Tommy Reynolds, James Morris, Lee Revell, Niraj kumar, Steven Rostedt Weber Ress asked how one might get started in Linux kernel development. Tommy Reynolds suggested, "Start by visiting http://www.kernelnewbies.org, and after reading that stuff, check the http://janitor.kernelnewbies.org/ page to pick a small starting point." James Morris added, "Also see the kernel-mentors mailing list: http://www.selenic.com/pipermail/kernel-mentors/" Steven Rostedt also recommended three books: * Understanding the Linux Kernel ISBN: 0596002130 (http://www.amazon.com/exec /obidos/ASIN/0596002130/qid%3D1117999617/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/ 002-1453694-3744833) * Linux Kernel Development ISBN: 0672327201 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/ obidos/ASIN/0672327201/qid%3D1117999640/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/ 002-1453694-3744833) * Linux Device Drivers ISBN: 0596005903 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ ASIN/0596005903/qid%3D1117999654/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/ 002-1453694-3744833) Lee Revell added, "Just in case you don't know it from school, equally essential is UNIX Internals, ISBN: 0131019082 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/ obidos/ASIN/0131019082/qid%3D1117999703/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/ 002-1453694-3744833) . It's OS agnostic (though the author likes Mach a lot), and unlike the above books it covers many features Linux does not yet have, like priority inheritance." Niraj kumar also suggested, "Look at this page , there are lots of good pointers ... http://jungla.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html" Sharon And Joy Kernel Traffic is grateful to be developed on a computer donated by Professor Greg Benson and Professor Allan Cruse in the Department of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco. This is the same department that invented FlashMob Computing. Kernel Traffic is hosted by the generous folks at kernel.org. All pages on this site are copyright their original authors, and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2.0.