Re: Question for Matthew Garrett

[Thiemo Seufer <ths@networkno.de>]

Matthias Urlichs wrote:
> Hi, Martin Schulze wrote:
> 
> > Synchronising security updates for several *distributions* (i.e. different
> > source versions) is a pain.  Sychronising for all architectures is quite
> > easy as long as our great buildd network is in good shape.
> 
> There's one area where the two are easily conflated -- kernel sources.
> Historically, every architecture has its own kernel source etc.

This isn't the case any more for sarge. There is one kernel source for
each 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6.

> Hopefully, that will change -- the new kernel process is quite
> amenable to integrating arch-specific changes, if they're sane.
> This was different during 2.4's lifetime.

Some architecture kernels still add an arch-specific patch (with
decreasing size over the timeline), but most security issues are
in generic code, so it won't hurt much.


Thiemo