[OpenAFS-devel] [grand.central.org #124130] Re-opening the discussion (fwd)

[Jeffrey Altman]

Felix Frank wrote:

> Jeffreys concerns are
> a) broken library interface exports
> b) possibly modified behaviour
> 
> Hartmut's responses were concerning (a) that the symbols in question were
> only bound by applications that called the MR-AFS specific RPC that
> is the issue here.
> The only applications that did so were
>  - MR-AFS's fs
>     -> obsolete
>     -> has been used only by Ken Hornstein, Uni Chemnitz and Garching
>     -> Garching had been the only MR-AFS site for years and now there
> are none left
>  - MR-AFS's cache manager
>     -> not linked against libraries, but built with complete source instead

The patch provided in 124130 broke the Windows platform because it
removed exported symbols names from the library.  As I indicated back
in January, if the functionality is going to be renamed but is identical
to the old wire protocol, then stub functions need to be created for
the old names.  Those names can call the new names or return an error.
It doesn't matter which.

> Concerning (b), all original behaviour is retained, all modifications are
> mere additions that don't break compatibility. The (former) ResidencyCmd
> has always had an extendable design.

That is true for the "fs" functionality included in this patch.

> While retrofitting OpenAFS+OSD to using the legacy names is at all
> possible according to Hartmut, it implies (unnecessary?) efforts as the
> existing cells at MPG and DESY would need to be "upgraded" completely.

There is the possibility that MPG and DESY will have to upgrade in any
case.  As part of OSD the behavior of the AFSFetchStatus SyncCounter was
modified.  Unfortunately, OSD is not the only project that has decided
to modify this field.  Sorting out who is going win the use of the
SyncCounter is not up to OpenAFS.  That needs to be decided by the
members of the afs3-stds mailing list.   Depending on how it gets
decided someone is going to lose or perhaps everyone will lose.   By
losing I mean that their organization will be forced to upgrade.

Jeffrey Altman