Changing kernel API / Breaking VirtualBox - update criteria violation?

[Matthew Garrett]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 08:12:42AM -0800, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 03:08:07PM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > We don't support out of tree kernel modules at all, so they're not 
> > considered when making the determination about whether an update is 
> > appropriate for a stable update.
> > 
> Nonsense.  We don't support them but the updates policy as written covers
> them.  I quoted the places in the policy in my other mail.  If you don't
> like what the updates policy says then change the updates policy to remove,
> amend, or clarify those sections.

The kernel ABI is the syscall interface, /sys and /proc. There is no 
stable module ABI between kernels - even with a small security update, 
the symbol versioning may change in such a way that the module ABI will 
change. Given that any interpretation of the stable update policy that 
prevented us from ever providing kernel security updates would be 
absurd, that's clearly not the correct interpretation. And if the module 
ABI isn't supported, nor is the API.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59 at srcf.ucam.org