[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] doc: add kernel version deprecation notice

[Bruce Richardson]

On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 10:54:44AM +0000, Luca Boccassi wrote:
> On Wed, 2018-02-14 at 11:38 +0100, Maxime Coquelin wrote:
> > 
> > On 02/14/2018 11:31 AM, Luca Boccassi wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2018-02-14 at 00:58 +0100, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > > > 31/01/2018 16:27, Stephen Hemminger:
> > > > > Notify users of upcoming change in kernel requirement.
> > > > > Encourage users to use current LTS kernel version.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>
> > > > > --- +* linux: Linux kernel version 3.2 (which is the current
> > > > > minimum required +  version for the DPDK) will be end of life
> > > > > in May 2018.  Therefore the planned +  minimum required kernel
> > > > > version for DPDK 18.5 will be next oldest Long +  Term Stable
> > > > > (LTS) version which is 3.10. The recommended kernel version is
> > > > > +  the latest LTS kernel which currently is 4.14.
> > > > 
> > > > We could print a warning at EAL init if kernel version does not
> > > > satisfy the minimal requirement.
> > > > 
> > > > Acked-by: Thomas Monjalon <thomas at monjalon.net>
> > > 
> > > Note that 3.10 is dead as well since last year (as I discovered
> > > with immense joy when I had to backport meltdown fixes...), the
> > > next LTS in 3.16 which will be maintained until 04/2020.
> > > 
> > 
> > In this case we should differentiate upstream Kernel versions from
> > downstream ones. For example, RHEL7/CentOS7 are based on v3.10 ans
> > still maintained.
> 
> Ubuntu does 3.13 as well - I think the problem is that if we want to
> support distro-specific LTS kernel versions, we need volunteers to do
> the work for them :-)
> 
> -- 
I think our kernel support plans need to be two-fold:

1) we need to support a minimum "kernel.org" kernel version, which is
what the deprecation notice is about.
2) we also will be supporting LTS distributions, e.g. I would expect us to
always support the latest RHEL, so that should be noted explicitly in the
GSG IMHO.

/Bruce