Comment by shawnz
6 years ago
None of these are good reasons to purposely hinder the optional use of ZFS as a third party module by users, which is what Linux is doing.
6 years ago
None of these are good reasons to purposely hinder the optional use of ZFS as a third party module by users, which is what Linux is doing.
Can you expand? I'm no expert - use linux daily but have always just used distro default file system. Linus' reasons for not integrating seems pretty sensible to me. Oracle certainly has form on the litigation front.
Linus' reasons for not integrating ZFS are absolutely valid and it's no doubt that ZFS can never be included in the mainline kernel. There's absolutely no debate there.
However the person he is replying to was not actually asking to have ZFS included in the mainline kernel. As noted above, that could never happen, and I believe that Linus is only bringing it up to deflect from the real issue. What they were actually asking is for Linux to revert a change that was made for no other reason than to hinder the use of ZFS.
Linux includes a system which restricts what APIs are available to each module based on the license of the module. GPL modules get the full set of APIs whereas non-GPL modules get a reduced set. This is done strictly for political reasons and has no known legal basis as far as I'm aware.
Not too long ago a change was made to reduce the visibility of a certain API required by ZFS so only GPL modules could use it. It's not clear why the change was made, but it was certainly not to improve the functionality of the kernel in any way. So the only plausible explanation to me is that it was done just to hinder the use of ZFS with Linux, which has been a hot political issue for some time now.
If I remember correctly, the reasoning for the GPL module stuff was/is, that if kernel modules integrate deeply with the kernel, they fall under gpl. So the GPL flag is basically a guideline of what kernel developers believe is safe to use from non gpl-compatible modules
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>This is done strictly for political reasons and has no known legal basis as far as I'm aware.
let me stop you right there. This being "Oracle," and its litigious nature, how can you truly be aware or sure?
Linus is literally saying there is a legal basis.
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This want a case of "purposely hinder", but rather the zfs nodule broke because of some kernel changes. The kernel is careful to never break userspace and never break its own merged modules. But if you're a third-party module then you're on your own. The kernel developers can't be responsible for maintaining compatibility with your stuff.
The changes conveniently accomplished nothing except for breaking ZFS. Furthermore, just because they don't officially support ZFS doesn't mean they must stonewall all the users who desire the improved compatibility. Reverting this small change would not be a declaration that ZFS is officially supported.