Details
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Technical task
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Resolution: Fixed
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Critical
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None
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9223372036854775807
Description
Right now when RPM packages are built, we insert into Lustre's release field the version string from the kernel against which Lustre was built. For instance:
$ rpm -qpi lustre-2.7.0-2.6.32_504.8.1.el6_lustre.x86_64.x86_64.rpm Name : lustre Version : 2.7.0 Release : 2.6.32_504.8.1.el6_lustre.x86_64
Side note: A sysadmin is going to (and have in the past) think we messed up because of the ".x86_64.x86_64" in the file name, but the reason for it is that the first one is part of the Linux kernel version string, as we can see in the Release field above. The second .x86_64 is Lustre's.
The reason for including the kernel's version string in Lustre's Release field because Lustre has traditionally been packaged to work with one, and only one, specific version of a kernel. If you have two very slightly different kernel versions "2.6.32_504.8.1.el6" and "2.6.32_504.8.2.el6", for instance, then you currently need to compile lustre against both kernels individually. While the "rpm -requires" should also list the specific required version number, because there are so many very closely compatible kernels for which we need to juggle lustre builds, it was simpler for sysadmins and developers alike to add the kernel's version string into Lustre's release field.
But fortunately, this need to build lustre for every specific kernel is a self-imposed restriction, and work is under way to lift that restriction in LU-5614.
For many years, it has been possible to compile kernel modules once and then use them with any kernel that is ABI compatible. The Linux distro mechanism that allows this is often called "weak modules". LU-5614 should bring Lustre into the year 2006 and get it working with weak modules.
Once that is done, we can finally drop the kernel version string.
This is especially fortuitous for anyone using koji as a build system, because koji makes this sort of abuse of standard packaging practice pretty close to impossible. koji is used by fedora and its cousins, and it has also been adopted by LLNL for its RHEL-based TOSS distribution.
