linux_old1/Documentation/ABI
Linus Torvalds 70e71ca0af Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next
Pull networking updates from David Miller:

 1) New offloading infrastructure and example 'rocker' driver for
    offloading of switching and routing to hardware.

    This work was done by a large group of dedicated individuals, not
    limited to: Scott Feldman, Jiri Pirko, Thomas Graf, John Fastabend,
    Jamal Hadi Salim, Andy Gospodarek, Florian Fainelli, Roopa Prabhu

 2) Start making the networking operate on IOV iterators instead of
    modifying iov objects in-situ during transfers.  Thanks to Al Viro
    and Herbert Xu.

 3) A set of new netlink interfaces for the TIPC stack, from Richard
    Alpe.

 4) Remove unnecessary looping during ipv6 routing lookups, from Martin
    KaFai Lau.

 5) Add PAUSE frame generation support to gianfar driver, from Matei
    Pavaluca.

 6) Allow for larger reordering levels in TCP, which are easily
    achievable in the real world right now, from Eric Dumazet.

 7) Add a variable of napi_schedule that doesn't need to disable cpu
    interrupts, from Eric Dumazet.

 8) Use a doubly linked list to optimize neigh_parms_release(), from
    Nicolas Dichtel.

 9) Various enhancements to the kernel BPF verifier, and allow eBPF
    programs to actually be attached to sockets.  From Alexei
    Starovoitov.

10) Support TSO/LSO in sunvnet driver, from David L Stevens.

11) Allow controlling ECN usage via routing metrics, from Florian
    Westphal.

12) Remote checksum offload, from Tom Herbert.

13) Add split-header receive, BQL, and xmit_more support to amd-xgbe
    driver, from Thomas Lendacky.

14) Add MPLS support to openvswitch, from Simon Horman.

15) Support wildcard tunnel endpoints in ipv6 tunnels, from Steffen
    Klassert.

16) Do gro flushes on a per-device basis using a timer, from Eric
    Dumazet.  This tries to resolve the conflicting goals between the
    desired handling of bulk vs.  RPC-like traffic.

17) Allow userspace to ask for the CPU upon what a packet was
    received/steered, via SO_INCOMING_CPU.  From Eric Dumazet.

18) Limit GSO packets to half the current congestion window, from Eric
    Dumazet.

19) Add a generic helper so that all drivers set their RSS keys in a
    consistent way, from Eric Dumazet.

20) Add xmit_more support to enic driver, from Govindarajulu
    Varadarajan.

21) Add VLAN packet scheduler action, from Jiri Pirko.

22) Support configurable RSS hash functions via ethtool, from Eyal
    Perry.

* git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next: (1820 commits)
  Fix race condition between vxlan_sock_add and vxlan_sock_release
  net/macb: fix compilation warning for print_hex_dump() called with skb->mac_header
  net/mlx4: Add support for A0 steering
  net/mlx4: Refactor QUERY_PORT
  net/mlx4_core: Add explicit error message when rule doesn't meet configuration
  net/mlx4: Add A0 hybrid steering
  net/mlx4: Add mlx4_bitmap zone allocator
  net/mlx4: Add a check if there are too many reserved QPs
  net/mlx4: Change QP allocation scheme
  net/mlx4_core: Use tasklet for user-space CQ completion events
  net/mlx4_core: Mask out host side virtualization features for guests
  net/mlx4_en: Set csum level for encapsulated packets
  be2net: Export tunnel offloads only when a VxLAN tunnel is created
  gianfar: Fix dma check map error when DMA_API_DEBUG is enabled
  cxgb4/csiostor: Don't use MASTER_MUST for fw_hello call
  net: fec: only enable mdio interrupt before phy device link up
  net: fec: clear all interrupt events to support i.MX6SX
  net: fec: reset fep link status in suspend function
  net: sock: fix access via invalid file descriptor
  net: introduce helper macro for_each_cmsghdr
  ...
2014-12-11 14:27:06 -08:00
..
obsolete Merge branches 'for-3.7/upstream-fixes', 'for-3.8/hidraw', 'for-3.8/i2c-hid', 'for-3.8/multitouch', 'for-3.8/roccat', 'for-3.8/sensors' and 'for-3.8/upstream' into for-linus 2012-12-12 21:41:55 +01:00
removed net_dma: simple removal 2014-09-28 07:05:16 -07:00
stable ACPI and power management updates for 3.19-rc1 2014-12-10 21:17:00 -08:00
testing Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next 2014-12-11 14:27:06 -08:00
README Documentation/ABI: document the non-ABI status of Kconfig and symbols 2013-11-13 12:09:32 +09:00

README

This directory attempts to document the ABI between the Linux kernel and
userspace, and the relative stability of these interfaces.  Due to the
everchanging nature of Linux, and the differing maturity levels, these
interfaces should be used by userspace programs in different ways.

We have four different levels of ABI stability, as shown by the four
different subdirectories in this location.  Interfaces may change levels
of stability according to the rules described below.

The different levels of stability are:

  stable/
	This directory documents the interfaces that the developer has
	defined to be stable.  Userspace programs are free to use these
	interfaces with no restrictions, and backward compatibility for
	them will be guaranteed for at least 2 years.  Most interfaces
	(like syscalls) are expected to never change and always be
	available.

  testing/
	This directory documents interfaces that are felt to be stable,
	as the main development of this interface has been completed.
	The interface can be changed to add new features, but the
	current interface will not break by doing this, unless grave
	errors or security problems are found in them.  Userspace
	programs can start to rely on these interfaces, but they must be
	aware of changes that can occur before these interfaces move to
	be marked stable.  Programs that use these interfaces are
	strongly encouraged to add their name to the description of
	these interfaces, so that the kernel developers can easily
	notify them if any changes occur (see the description of the
	layout of the files below for details on how to do this.)

  obsolete/
  	This directory documents interfaces that are still remaining in
	the kernel, but are marked to be removed at some later point in
	time.  The description of the interface will document the reason
	why it is obsolete and when it can be expected to be removed.

  removed/
	This directory contains a list of the old interfaces that have
	been removed from the kernel.

Every file in these directories will contain the following information:

What:		Short description of the interface
Date:		Date created
KernelVersion:	Kernel version this feature first showed up in.
Contact:	Primary contact for this interface (may be a mailing list)
Description:	Long description of the interface and how to use it.
Users:		All users of this interface who wish to be notified when
		it changes.  This is very important for interfaces in
		the "testing" stage, so that kernel developers can work
		with userspace developers to ensure that things do not
		break in ways that are unacceptable.  It is also
		important to get feedback for these interfaces to make
		sure they are working in a proper way and do not need to
		be changed further.


How things move between levels:

Interfaces in stable may move to obsolete, as long as the proper
notification is given.

Interfaces may be removed from obsolete and the kernel as long as the
documented amount of time has gone by.

Interfaces in the testing state can move to the stable state when the
developers feel they are finished.  They cannot be removed from the
kernel tree without going through the obsolete state first.

It's up to the developer to place their interfaces in the category they
wish for it to start out in.


Notable bits of non-ABI, which should not under any circumstances be considered
stable:

- Kconfig.  Userspace should not rely on the presence or absence of any
  particular Kconfig symbol, in /proc/config.gz, in the copy of .config
  commonly installed to /boot, or in any invocation of the kernel build
  process.

- Kernel-internal symbols.  Do not rely on the presence, absence, location, or
  type of any kernel symbol, either in System.map files or the kernel binary
  itself.  See Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt.