Re: earliest supported kernel is 2.6.32 now

[Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>]

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 12:23:56AM +0200, Adam Borowski wrote:
> On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 11:50:58PM +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote:
> > From the udev 168-2 changelog:
> > 
> >   * Earliest kernel release supported raised from 2.6.27 to 2.6.32 due
> >     to the usage of accept4(2).
> > 
> > So you may want to clean up your packages to remove all code needed for
> > compatibility with older kernels.
> 
> There is a world outside of udev.
> 
> Hosting places tend to be really slow at the uptake of new kernels, so
> usually you can expect 2.6.26 regardless of whether you run stable, testing
> or unstable in your vserver.
> 
> Breaking compatibility just for the sake of breaking, or at most premature
> cleanup, is unnecessary damage.
[...]

Backward-compatibility has a cost, sometimes substantial.

I don't think packages in testing/unstable should be expected to support
any kernel version older than that in stable.  It's the same same rule we
apply to any other dependency.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
                                                              - Albert Camus