Re: [Xen-devel] Xen 4.4 development update

[George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 19/08/13 13:08, Pasi Kärkkäinen wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 12:38:16PM +0100, George Dunlap wrote:
> > * However, blktap is unmaintained.  Unless someone steps up to add
> > the functionality (which is not recommended as it would probably te
> > a waste of effort), it will continue to require a modprobe. On newer
> > systems, without blktap, the modprobe will be harmless.  So for
> > blktap, the modprobe will have to remain for the forseeable future.
> What I've been wondering.. XenServer is shipping with and using blktap,
> so there must be someone maintaining blktap at Citrix?
> I also understand blktap is on the way out and will be replaced with qdisc in 
> the future..
As I understand it, XenServer is using a private fork of blktap2, with 
significant changes.  Since blktap2 as a whole can't be upstreamed into 
the mainline kernel, I think the feeling was that there wasn't any point 
in trying to upstream the local changes to the "classic" kernel.  
Blktap3 was meant to be the mainline-friendly version of blktap, but as 
you say, work on it has halted and the plan at the moment, I'm told is 
to look into qdisk, since it uses a similar technology, but gives access 
to work from other communities as well (Ceph, for example).
Thanos, correct me if I've made a mistake somewhere...

 -George


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