Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 21:29:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net> To: Jaye Mathisen <mrcpu@cdsnet.net> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: Besides time, what the heck does it take to get DPT driver i Message-ID: <XFMail.970816212951.Shimon@i-Connect.Net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.95.970814114416.22434M-100000@mail.cdsnet.net>
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Hi Jaye Mathisen; On 14-Aug-97 you wrote:
>
>
> :) I'm getting tired repatching my source tree all the time.
Me too, me too...
I did not see the original posting, so please someone help me out here...
> Now if the darn thing would make it into current so I could smp and DPT,
> I could die a happy man.
You are an exceptionally easy man to satisfy :-)
I just posted a patch to current of the DPT driver 1.2.1. It even runs or
I would not have been able to type this.
>
> I recall somebody saying it was going to happen a few weeks go, but
> unless I"m doing something wrong, I don't see it.
Here is a short version of my OPINION on what is happening (Justin is the
gatekeeper of all SCSI code going into the kernel); The DPT driver
suffers from certain problems, stopping it from being checked in.
In no particular order:
a. The coding style is (was) horrendously ugly. It is a mixture of K&R,
System V, Oracle influence, bad habits (I used to
write a lot of PL/I)
and sheer madness. While very readable by yours truely, it is rightly
not acceptable as a FreeBSD code.
b. To get the performance levels I wanted and the load bearing ability I
needed, the driver uses software interrupts (first SCSI HBA driver to
actually do that on FreeBSD that I know of. This represents a
modification to 2.2 interrupt handlers; Not acceptable by core.
c. Version 3.0 of FreeBSD intends to use a whole new SCSI midlayer. One
that complies with CAM3 (is this the correct way to describe it,
Justin?). It was felt by the core team that the DPT driver should use
this layer or pertinant pieces of it. Until this integration actually
happens, the DPT driver will stay outside the source tree.
d. There were several bugs in the driver that could show up as a crash
or lost interrupts (I think). Although I could never actually cause
some of them to surface, they are considered show stoppers. Much (if
not all) of these should be gone now.
I am not asking you to agree with this. Just telling you how I understand
the situation. My employer intends to use FreeBSD and the DPT as key,
(``strategic'' they call it) technology in some darn important products.
As such we heavily review and test and review the code. As far as I can
tell, the DPT driver works correctly and reliably. If not, let me know.
Please.
I am working closely with the core team to resolve these problems and
bring the driver up to their excellent standards. We want the code we
release (DPT is only the first), to be at least as good, stable and clean
as the rest of the system.
> (Now if I could just talk Simon into a Mylex driver, I'd really be
> cookin').
Me? Mylex? Sure, send me a card, documentation and (if possible contact
name).
Simon
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