[OpenAFS] On desupporting Linux 2.4

[Rich Sudlow]

On 02/25/2015 12:51 PM, Benjamin Kaduk wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Linux 2.4 is getting long in the tooth, and it is becoming clear that
> attempting to continue to support it is a drain on the scarce OpenAFS
> development resources which could be better used to modernize the
> codebase and implement security and performance improvements such as rxgk
> and fine-grained pthreaded locking.
>
> In particular, the threading library used by Linux 2.4, LinuxThreads, is
> not compliant to the POSIX (pthread) standard, and the non-standard
> behaviors are preventing improvements to OpenAFS such as
> http://gerrit.openafs.org/#change,6947 .  Even attempting to retain the
> old OpenAFS behavior on systems with LinuxThreads and provide improved
> functionality for other systems seems to be beyond the available developer
> resources.
>
> When discussion on http://gerrit.openafs.org/#change,6947 began in 2012,
> it was claimed that dropping support for Linux 2.4 was premature at that
> time.  It is now nearly three years later, and no progress has been made
> on that change in gerrit, because of the difficulty of dealing with
> LinuxThreads and Linux 2.4.
>
> As such, I propose that OpenAFS drop support for Linux 2.4 (and thus
> LinuxThreads) starting with the forthcoming 1.8 release.  Because this is
> a substantial change, I invite comments from the community as to whether
> it is appropriate and acceptable to desupport Linux 2.4, and what the
> scope of the impact of such a change would be.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Ben Kaduk
> _______________________________________________
> OpenAFS-info mailing list
> OpenAFS-info@openafs.org
> https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-info
>

I would definitely be in favor of dropping support for Linux 2.4.

Rich

-- 
Rich Sudlow
University of Notre Dame
Center for Research Computing - Union Station
506 W. South St
South Bend, In 46601

(574) 631-7258 (office)
(574) 807-1046 (cell)