%
"I want you guys to look at your computer screen, imagining the worst
monster you can (the cacodeamon from Quake will do, just make him hairier
and bigger and more MEAN), and think of me. Think of me like I am when I
see a patch which isn't a pure bug-fix.
If you're whimpering just _thinking_ about sending me a new feature,
you're in the right mindframe. Keep that mindframe."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Note that nobody reads every post in linux-kernel. In fact, nobody who
expects to have time left over to actually do any real kernel work will
read even half. Except Alan Cox, but he's actually not human, but about
a thousand gnomes working in under-ground caves in Swansea. None of the
individual gnomes read all the postings either, they just work together
really well."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"And I doubt complaining to the author gets you anything but a free procmail
rule."
- Alan Cox on asking authors to document their code
%
"hairier and meaner.. you need to grow a beard Linus"
- A bearded Alan Cox in response to Linus' "cacodaemon" post
%
"Linux doesn't support any sub-32-bit computers, and despite the occasional
deranged people interested in retro-computing (ie Alan Cox) I doubt it
seriously will.."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Innovation, innovate, and the concept of doing what everyone else did 20
years ago are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other
buzzwords, euphemisms, and blatant lies are trademarks of their respective
owners."
- James Simmons
%
"If I have trouble installing Linux, something is wrong. Very wrong."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"I've just come to this group and I don't know what it's all about.
I just feel it must be something really serious. Is it really ?"
- H. J. Thomas on linux-activists
%
"I hope you will find the courage to keep on living
despite the existence of this feature."
- Richard Stallman
%
"Now I know why you say so little in person, you mouth is in a NOP because
the brain is always inserting requests at the top of the list_head."
- Andre Hedrick on Alan Cox
%
"Existence of programs that do the impossible is
not a proof that that "impossible" is now possible."
- Tigran Aivazian
%
"I suppose this is the Linus Torvalds version of Fermats Last Theorem :-)
(Leaving people wondering "why" for hundreds of years...)"
- Timmy Thorn on kernel/sched.c:schedule()
%
">So what is The Big Difference(tm) that make file streams
>so much better than directories and so much different?
I'll talk really slowly."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"If we can't keep this sort of thing out of the kernel, we might as well
pack it up and go run Solaris."
- Larry McVoy
%
Jes Sorensen wrote:
> Jamie, you know how inappropriate it is to introduce facts in a
> discussion about ReiserFS, please refrain from that in the future."
Sorry, I will use [OFFTOPIC] for facts in future ;-)
- Jamie Lokier
%
"Since when has a dictator ever been benign? I hear all this
libertarian garbage being spouted from the "linux community",
and then have people apparently celebrate the existance of a
dictatorship..."
- Michael W. Zappe
%
"Message passing as the fundamental operation of the OS is just an
excercise in computer science masturbation. It may feel good, but you
don't actually get anything DONE."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Think of it this way: threads are like salt, not like
pasta. You like salt, I like salt, we all like salt. But we
eat more pasta."
- Larry McVoy
%
"I am getting pretty good at running diff and patch now"
- Jeff Merkey
%
"Hardware simply does not work like the manual says and no amount
of Zen contemplation will ever make you at one with a 3c905B
ethernet card."
- Alan Cox
%
"Hard work now leads to less work full stop"
- Alan Cox
%
"Thanks, and THIS time it really is fixed. I mean, how many times can we
get it wrong? At some point, we just have to run out of really bad ideas.."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"I am getting pretty good at running diff and patch now."
- Jeff Merkey
%
"I'd rather not work with people who aren't careful. It's darwinism
in software development. It's a cold, callous argument that says
that there are two kinds of people, and I'd rather not work with the
second kind. Live with it."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"The debugger is akin to giving the _rabbits_ a bazooka. The poor wolf
doesn't get any sharper teeth. Yeah, it sure helps against wolves.
They explode in pretty patterns of red drops flying _everywhere_. Cool.
But it doesn't help against a rabbit gene pool that is slowly
deteriorating because there is nothing to keep them from breeding, and no
darwin to make sure that it's the fastest and strongest that breeds.
You mentioned how NT has the nicest debugger out there.
Contemplate it."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"The lymbic system in my brain is so electrically active, it qualifies
as a third brain. Normal humans have two brains, left and right.
- Jeff Merkey
%
"Truncate - the never-ending story. Makes me feel like a long
Kurosawa movie. But in this one the hero _will_ survive, or my
name isn't Maxwell."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Yeah. Maybe we fixed truncate, and maybe we didn't. I've thought that we
fixed it now several times, and I was always wrong. Time for some reverse
psychology:
I'm sure this one doesn't fix the truncate bug either.
- Linus Torvalds
%
"And I'm right. I'm always right, but in this case I'm just a bit more
right than I usually am."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"I'm a bastard, and proud of it !"
- Linus Torvalds
%
"I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think
otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that
I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings
or lost hours of work if it just results in what I consider to be a better
system."
- Linus Torvalds
%
___________________
( Linnnnnnnnnnnnnux )
-------------------
o , ,
o /( )`
o \ \___ / |
o /- _ `-/ '
o (/\/ \ \ /\
o / / | ` \
o O O ) / |
o `-^--'`< '
.--. (_.) _ ) /
|o_o | `.___/` /
|:_/ | `-----' /
//<- \ \----. __ / __ \
(| <- | )---|====O)))==) \) /====
/'\ <- _/`\---' `--' `.__,' \
\___)=(___/ | |
\ /
______( (_ / \______
,' ,-----' | \
`--{__________) \/
%
"Remind me not to fix mtrr.c after half a litre of wine in future."
- Alan Cox
%
"I admit I've done too much playing around without understanding
the issues involved over the last years as well, but it's time
to stop reinventing the (sometimes octangular) wheel and learn
everything from history which we can learn."
- Rik van Riel
%
"I looked all over the place for an explanation. Elves and Gremlins."
- Mike "Heisen who?" Galbraith
%
"I think it's wrong any of us should claim ideas for stuff
that has been done already by other people. It's time to
put away the wheel reinvention kit and LEARN FROM OTHER
SYSTEMS and even from *shudder* books ;)"
- Rik van Riel
%
"Its alt.conspiracy.kook time.
Let me mention the Nazi's. Now can the thread die ?"
- Alan Cox
%
Understatement of the century:
"Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating
system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for
386(486) AT clones"
- Linus Torvalds, August 1991
%
"The 'C' language can order structure members anyway it wants."
- Richard B. Johnson
%
"Quite frankly, I'd rather have a few people hate me deeply than apply
stuff I don't like."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"The dead should not care about proper locking,
those are realms of the living..."
- Tigran Aivazian
%
"This, btw, is not something I would suggest you do in your living room.
Getting a penguin to pee on demand is _messy_. We're talking yellow spots
on the walls, on the ceiling, yea verily even behind the fridge. However.
I would also advice against doing this outside - it may be a lot easier to
clean up, but you're likely to get reported and arrested for public
lewdness Never mind that you had a perfectly good explanation for it all."
- Linus Torvalds on sprinkling holy penguin pee
%
"No bugs were harmed in the preparation of this patch.
It's just me fartarsing around."
- Andrew Morton
%
"... and don't ask me about the extraneous parenthesis. I bet some LISP
programmer felt alone and decided to make it a bit more homey."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"I would suggest you to read through the following book and files:
* Kernighan & Pike, "The Practice of Programming"
* Documentation/CodingStyle
* drivers/net/aironet4500_proc.c
and consider, erm, discrepancies. On the second thought, reading K&R
might also be useful. IOW, no offense, but your C is bad beyond belief."
- Al Viro
%
"You are welcome to your opinion. I've got this great bridge to sell you too."
- Alan Cox to someone recommending the NVidia drivers
%
"It's just that I was born with a highly developed case of Altzheimers, and
I have trouble keeping details around in my head for more than about five
minutes."
- Linus Torvalds on bug tracking
%
"Linux kernel development is dominated by a hacker ethos, in which
external documentation is held in contempt, and even code comments
are viewed with suspicion."
- Jerry Epplin
%
Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
>
> Running with page aging convinces me that 2.2.19 we need to sort some
> of the vm issues out badly, and make it faster than 2.4test 8)
Ahh.. The challenge is out!
You and me. Mano a mano.
Linus
%
> Is there anything else I can contribute?
The latitude and longtitude of the bios writers current position, and
a ballistic missile.
Please boot 2.2.18pre24 (not pre25) on the machine and send me its DMI strings
printed at boot time. I'll add it to the 'stupid morons who cant program and
wouldnt know QA if it hit them on the head with a mallet' list
- Alan Cox on BIOS bugs
%
"Looks clean and obviously correct to me, but then _everything_ I write
always looks obviously correct yo me."
- Linus
%
"Call me stupid [ Chorus: "You're stupid, Linus" ], but I actually compiled
and booted this remotely."
- Linus
%
"I'll bet you $5 USD (and these days, that's about a gadzillion Euros) that
this explains it."
- Linus
%
"If I need to put content identification in, well guess what - thats a list
((my_name "Hello") (his_name "Foo"))
and XML is simply lisp done wrong."
- Alan Cox
%
"Rusty? Help me out, and I won't ever call "netfilter" a heap of stinking
dung again. Do we have a deal?"
- Linus
%
"Please see the posting on l-k today "[NEW DRIVER] New user space serial port"
which does just what you want. Just-in-time kernel development has arrived."
- Andreas Dilger
%
> around line mm/vmscan.c:487 that says:
Yeah, yeah, it's 7PM Christmas Eve over there, and you're in the middle of
your Christmas dinner. You might feel that it's unreasonable of me to ask
you to test out my latest crazy idea.
How selfish of you.
Get back there in front of the computer NOW. Christmas can wait.
Linus "the Grinch" Torvalds
%
> I can just imagine Xmas at the Torvalds residence, with their annual
> tradition of having the kids scream... But dad, other kids have the l
> lights strung around the trees, not the computer....
I don't think you get the full picture. I suspect what gets strung up on the
trees at Christmas if Linus does too much hacking is ... Linus
- Alan Cox
%
"A computer is a state machine.
Threads are for people who can't program state machines."
- Alan Cox
%
"In theory, practice and theory are the same, but in practice they are
different."
- Larry McVoy
%
"After 40 Terabytes, your fingers start to hurt."
- David Miller on typing
%
"Oh, well. Not everybody can be as goodlooking as me. It's a curse."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"And I have to say that I absolutely despise the BSD people. They did
sendfile() after both Linux and HP-UX had done it, and they must have
known about both implementations. And they chose the HP-UX braindamage,
and even brag about the fact that they were stupid and didn't understand
TCP_CORK (they don't say so in those exact words, of course - they just
show that they were stupid and clueless by the things they brag about)."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"> I am using the Intel PCI backplane with default etchlink/jumper
> configuration and the EBSA285 configured as host bridge.
I'd suggest that you check, double check, triple check, take a photo of
the links and put it up on the web and get someone else to check all
the link settings on the EBSA285 card."
- Russell King on linux-arm-kernel
%
"I hold open source people to higher standards. They are supposed to be
the people who do programming because it's an art-form, not because it's
their job."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Once you realize that documentation should be laughed at, peed upon, put
on fire, and just ridiculed in general, THEN, and only then, have you reached
the level where you can safely read it and try to use it to actually implement
a driver."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"Just wait. My crystal ball is infallible."
- Linus Torvalds
%
"And no, the driver is not a virus nor a trojan nor does it have any
intelligence to suddenly decide to write things when it isn't asked to..."
- Anton Altaparmakov on the NTFS driver
%
"Wichert> Why would anyone want to do this?
Probably because it's a completely stupid idea that serves no purpose
whatsoever."
- Jes Sorensen on moving copyright headers to footers
%
"Maybe a good analogy is that drivers are to hardware companies like
excrements are to living creatures: in order to stay alive, they have
to produce them, but you don't put much love into their production,
and their internals (like their development) may be a little
disgusting."
- Werner Almesberger
%
> Is there an API or other means to determine what video card, namely the
> chipset, that the user has installed on his machine?
On a modern X86 machine use the PCI/AGP bus data. On a PS/2 use the MCA bus
data. On nubus use the nubus probe data. On old style ISA bus PCs done a
large pointy hat and spend several years reading arcane and forbidden
scrolls
- Alan Cox on hardware probing
%
"An innovation a day keeps the monopolist away"
- Alan Cox when releasing linux-2.4.1ac19
%
Unix has this thing called "directories", which make it possible
for you to have multiple files with the same name on your disk.
- Rik van Riel explaining the concept of directories
%
<movement> hmm, all you kernel hackers spending too much time adding
fortunes instead of important stuff :)
- John Levon trying to grasp kernel hacking reality
%
Alan Cox wrote:
> RFC1122 also requires that your protocol stack SHOULD be able to leap tall
> buldings at a single bound of course...
And, of course my protocol stack does :) It is also a floor wax, AND a
dessert topping!-)
- Rick Jones trying to sell his protocol stack
%
<WeirdArms> erikm: bugger alan cox on a chip, I want alan cox in a book ;)
- Adam Wiggins on #kernelnewbies
%
<matton> it might be broken?
<al> matton: sigh... all software sucks, but usually there are symptomes
beyond "it doesn't work"
- Al Viro on #kernelnewbies
%
He's back. And this time he's got a chainsaw.
- Al Viro announcing per-process namespaces on lkml
%
"Guys, if you want a large subtree in /proc - whack yourself over the head
until you realize that you want an fs of your own. I'll be more than
happy to help with both parts."
- Al Viro
%
Alan Cox wrote:
> In theory however i2o is a standard and all i2o works alike. In practice i2o
> is a pseudo standard and nobody seems to interpret the spec the same way, the
> implementations all tend to have bugs and the hardware sometimes does too.
That's a pretty good description of standards in general, at least
when it comes to hardware :-)
- Jens Axboe's interpretation of standards
%
/* Allow the packet buffer size to be overridden by know-it-alls. */
- comment from drivers/net/ne.c
%
/* strangest things ever said, #6, to alan cox: "...and remember, alan
* - no monkeybusiness. remember, i sleep nude and we dont want to
* give rachel the shock of her life..." */
- comment in the Crack 5 source, file src/util/kickdict.c
%
/* First check any supplied i/o locations. User knows best. <cough> */
- comment from drivers/net/ne.c
%
David Brownell wrote:
> AMD told me I'd need an NDA to learn their workaround, and I've not
> pursued it. (Does anyone already know what kind of NDA they use?)
It varies depending on the info. They may well be able to sort out a sane
NDA with you. If they dont want to then I guess it would be best if the
ohci driver printing a message explaining the component has an undocumented
errata fix, gave AMD's phone number and refused to load..
- Alan Cox
%
/* Sun, you just can't beat me, you just can't. Stop trying,
* give up. I'm serious, I am going to kick the living shit
* out of you, game over, lights out.
*/
- comment from arch/sparc/lib/checksum.S
%
"The 'C' language can order structure members anyway it wants."
- Richard B. Johnson on linux-kernel
%
Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> The 'C' language can order structure members anyway it wants.
You are an idiot.
- Rusty Russell on linux-kernel
%
/* So there I am, in the middle of my `netfilter-is-wonderful'
talk in Sydney, and someone asks `What happens if you try
to enlarge a 64k packet here?'. I think I said something
eloquent like `fuck'. */
- comment from net/ipc4/netfilter/ip_nat_ftp.c
%
I will pop a nasty patch to get you through the almost death, but it is
nasty and not the preferred unknow solution.
- Andre Hedrik on linux-kernel
%
Alan Olsen wrote:
> things correctly they have enhanced Wake-on-LAN to allow you to do
> things like reset the machine, update the BIOS and such by sending
> magic packets which are interpreted by the network card. Or maybe I am
Normally 'sending magic packets resets the machine' is considered a feature
reported to bugtraq. The alert stuff I have seen is more akin to sending SNMP
traps for things like people opening the lid, or fan failure
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
cp -a fs/ext{2,69}
cp -a include/linux/ext{2,69}_fs.h
cp -a include/linux/ext{2,69}_fs_i.h
cp -a include/linux/ext{2,69}_fs_sb.h
for i in fs/ext69/* include/linux/ext69*; do
vi '-cse ext|%s/(ext|EXT)2/\169/g|x' $i;
done
vi '-c/EXT/|y|pu|s/2/69/|s/Second/FUBAR/|x' fs/Config.in
vi '-c/ext2/|y|pu|s/ext2/ext69/g|//|y|pu|&g|//|y|pu|&g|//|y|pu|&g|x' \
include/linux/fs.h
had done the trick last time I needed something like that, but that was long
time ago...
- Al Viro explaining some simple commands on linux-kernel
%
Actually you would still need the other fixes otherwise you might as well put
the root password in /etc/motd
- Alan Cox pointing out some security holes in binfmt_misc
%
I retain the right to change my mind, as always. Le Linus e mobile.
- Linus Torvalds
%
Steve Underwood wrote:
> Dave Miller wrote:
> > alterity wrote:
> > > Haven't seen a post for sometime from the usually prolific Mr Cox.
> > > What's the gossip?
> >
> > They needed some help from him to position Mir for it's
> > final descent.
>
> Strange. I thought his key skill was stopping things from crashing!
This crash was inevitable, he's just making sure the disks get
sync'd.
- Dave Miller on linux-kernel
%
Andries Brouwer wrote:
> Linux is unreliable.
> That is bad.
Since your definition of reliability is a mathematical abstraction requiring
infinite storage why don't you start by inventing infinitely large SDRAM
chips, then get back to us ?
- Alan Cox
%
I have a simple rule in life: If I don't understand something, it must be bad.
- Linus Torvalds
%
/me thinks ext2 code is more effectively encrypted than DVDs are ;)
- Andrew Ebling on #kernelnewbies
%
But I have a holy crusade. I dislike waste. I dislike over-engineering. I
absolutely detest the "because we can" mentality. I think small is
beautiful, and the guildeline should always be that performance and size
are more important than features.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Dennis wrote:
> whatever you do dont buy a gigabit card with a small buffer and 32bits.
> 32bits isnt enough to do gigabit, even with a large buffer.
Never underestimate what will come out of Taiwan in massive quantities
:)
- Jeff Garzik about gigabit ethernet cards on linux-kernel
%
Bruno Avila wrote:
> I can't find this anywhere. What is the version of the tools to
> compile linux kernel 0.0.0.1 (../Historic)? And where can i find them?
Well, first you have to find a good source of obsidean, a couple of sharp
rocks, and some flint...
- Alan Olsen on linux-kernel
%
In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
- Linus Torvalds
%
The only recomendation is "dont".
- Alan Cox giving some recommendations for binary-only drivers
%
Thou shalt not put policy into the kernel.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
The policy is not to have policy. It works as well in kernel design as politics.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Another hour, another error report...
- Eric S. Raymond on linux-kernel
%
This is probably the first and last time I will openly agree for someone
to tell me were to go, and do it ;-).
- Andre Hedrick on linux-kernel
%
David Wagner wrote:
> Is this a bad coding?
Yes. Not to mention side effects, it's just plain ugly. Anyone who invents
identifiers of _that_ level of ugliness should be forced to read them
aloud for a week or so, until somebody will shoot him out of mercy.
Out of curiosity: who was the author? It looks unusually nasty, even for
SGI.
- Al Viro on coding style
%
You know, if you really do not understand the implications of
running everything with permissions equivalent to root - get
the hell out of any UNIX-related programming until you learn.
- Al Viro explaining the merits of doing everything as root
%
Do one thing and do it well.
- Andrew Grover, ACPI maintainer on Linux-power.
%
We could be way simpler if we didn't try to be so flexible.
- Andrew Grover, ACPI maintainer on Linux-power.
%
ACPI - it's too late to improve it - it's the standard
- Andrew Grover, ACPI maintainer on Linux-power.
%
Yes, we're all anti-american terrorists who plan to make the
US economy collapse by inventing lots of new words which will
have to be added to the dictionary, making the US economy
unable to support the ever-growing dictionaries and ensuring
the Americans will be unable to (learn to) spell, leaving them
dead in the water if there's ever a linguistic war between
them and the UK.
- Rik van Riel explaining the real reason behind spelling
mistakes in the linux kernel
%
My opinions always matter :-)
- Dan Malek on the linuxppc-embedded list
%
You don't get out much, do you :-)? Lighten up a little, this
is supposed to be fun.......We could argue all day, but there was
lots of computer work done before PCI and PCs. I'm more than old
enough to know, so just leave it at that.......
- Dan Malek on the linuxppc-embedded list
%
You want brutality and heuristics? I'll give you brutality and heuristics...
- Eric S. Raymond on linux-kernel
%
The thing looks obvious, but I'd rather not apply it to my tree until
somebody sends me the above back as a tested patch.. Call me a sissy.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
The executive, Irving Wladawsky- Berger, an I.B.M. vice president, said,
"If we thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be doing it, and as you
know, we have a lot of lawyers."
- from a New York Times article about Microsoft vs GPL licensing
%
I'd rather listen to Newton than to Mundie.
He may have been dead for almost three hundred years,
but despite that he stinks up the room less.
- Linus Torvalds on Craig Mundie's "shared source" speech.
%
You can extend EXTRAVERSION infinitely, but after the first 10 or so
characters, it starts to get silly.
- Russell King on linux-kernel
%
<tik-tok> Hi all, I'm having problems with my 2.2.19 kernel build I'm
trying to create my ramdisk and I get the following error
message "All your loopback devices are in use!" can anyone help?
<phillips> All your loopback devices are belong to us!
- Daniel Phillips on #kernelnewbies
%
<klak> I need some help, I upgraded my kernel and on a reboot I get this
error
message kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k binfmt-464c, errno
= 8 can anyone help?
<spinoli> from /usr/include/asm/errno.h
<spinoli> #define ENOEXEC 8 /* Exec format error */
<spinoli> not that that necessarily tells you much ;)
- from #kernelnewbies
%
I can see the intent.
I can also see that the code doesn't match up to the intent.
I call that a bug. You don't. Fine.
- Linus Torvalds rejecting a patch on linux-kernel
%
Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> It's a "tomorrow" thing. Ten hours it too long to stare at a
> screen.
Sissy!
- Jens Axboe on linux-kernel
%
Okay. I am now awake. I will now try the kernel thread. Looks
simple.
- Richard Johnson on linux-kernel
%
IOW, "not a tty" used to mean "WTF are you using ioctls here?"
- Al Viro explaining ENOTTY on linux-kernel
%
Oh, I believe they do..........but, I haven't been wrong lately,
so maybe it's my turn again :-).
- Dan Malek on linuxppc-embedded
%
if (!cost_analysis) goto darwinism;
- Mike Galbraith explaining economics on linux-kernel
%
Were they afraid that "e" being the most widely used letter in
the English language was going to war out thir xpnsiv kyboards if
thy usd it all th tim?
- Mike A. Harris on linux-kernel
%
Ha. For once you're both wrong but not where you are thinking.
- Larry McVoy to Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Nvidia driver loaded - bugs to nvidia. vmware loaded bugs to vmware,
both loaded, god help you, nobody else will
- Alan Cox explaining where to send bug reports for binary-only drivers
%
... but giving people the power to do even silly things is what Linux
is all about.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Sysadmin and editors. The holy wars of UNIX.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
It should be a case of "Just plug in a new kernel, and suddenly your
existing filesystem just allows you to do more! 20% more for the same
price! AND we'll throw in this useful ginzu knife for just 4.95 for
shipping and handling. Absolutely free!"
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> It should be a case of "Just plug in a new kernel, and suddenly your
> existing filesystem just allows you to do more! 20% more for the same
> price! AND we'll throw in this useful ginzu knife for just 4.95 for
> shipping and handling. Absolutely free!"
...Linus demonstrates why American culture is a bad influence on you.
- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
Please, don't mix _that_ flamewar into the thread, OK?
- Al Viro in an almost-flamewar on linux-kernel
%
It's a mistake to think that a directory has to be a directory.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
(at this point the lecture turns into why APIs exist and should be used,
and it gets more boring from there...)
- Jeff Garzik explaining the PCI API on linux-kernel
%
Because you want to win benchmarketing exercises, not demonstrate that your
architecture has any value in the real world whatsoever. Because you know
that you can induce people with financial approval to make stupid and
irrational decisions based on irrelevant data.
- Rodger Donaldson about benchmarking on linux-kernel
%
It should be fixed, but it won't be easy and it won't be fast. If you want
to help - wonderful. But keep in mind that it will take months of wading
through the ugliest code we have in the tree. If you've got a weak stomach -
stay out. I've been there and it's not a nice place.
- Al Viro on fixing drivers
%
Basically, ioctl's will _never_ be done right, because of the way people
think about them. They are a back door. They are by design typeless and
without rules. They are, in fact, the Microsoft of UNIX.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Let's _not_ bring that into this thread, OK?
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Step #1 in programming: understand people.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Sorry about the rant - I've just spent a couple of hours wading through
the piles of excrements in drivers/*. Ouch.
- Al Viro about ugly code in device drivers on linux-kernel
%
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Ehh.. Telling people "don't do that" simply doesn't work. Not if they can
> do it easily anyway. Things really don't get fixed unless people have a
> certain pain-level to induce it to get fixed.
Umm... How about the following: you hit delete on patches that introduce
new ioctls, I help to provide required level of pain. Deal?
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
"MIME, oh mime, how I hate thee. Let me stick pins in you to
count the ways..." -- Ben LaHaise
%
And I hate redundancy, and having different functions for the same thing.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Hope this helps some, sorry for not being able to do a brain dump.
- Mike Stump helping a clueless user on the gcc mailing list
%
<ed__> riel: if it were a vax, gcc would probably be an opcode
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
Code like that would not pass through anybody's yuck-o-meter.
- Linus Torvalds about design on linux-kernel
%
If you _really_ feel this strongly about the bug, you could
either try to increase the number of hours a day for all of
us or you could talk to my boss about hiring me as a consultant
to fix the problem for you on an emergency basis :)
- Rik van Riel explaining what to do against kernel bugs
%
What the guy was doing was having a bad case of optical rectitus.
That would be typical of a "reseller" (AKA Salesman). Most would not
even have a CLUE that the cards were based on the tulip chipset / driver.
- Michael Warf on linux-kernel
%
It has always been the policy that format conversions go in user space.
The kernel is an arbitrator of resources it is not a shit bucket for
solving other peoples incompetence.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<sadie> ata: do you get some help from promise while developing the patch ?
<ata> sadie: pass me a toke of what ever you are smokin'
- Andre Hedrik on #kernelnewbies
%
> Not that the kernel list is the best place to bring this up, but NVIDIA
> would NOT be on that list. They are by far one of the best companies out
> there providing support for their cards. I bought my GF2 for exactly that
> reason too....
Sure. I spent much happy time telling people to report bugs to nvidia because
their closed drivers mean that only nvidia can debug all the crashes people
see with them loaded - at least some of which dont occur without the modules
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<phillips> as a perl god, just tell me how to find any string with
kernel-doc on it
<phillips> I'll trade for some heavyduty vfs consulting one day ;-)
- Daniel Phillips on #kernelnewbies
%
Patches benefit all mankind. Products benefit the vendor.
- Richard Gooch on linux-kernel
%
#undef THISSUCKS /* Only for 2.2 */
#ifdef THISSUCKS
#include <linux/pipe_fs_i.h>
#endif
- from include/linux/jffs2_fs_i.h
%
#define JFFS2_MAGIC_BITMASK 0x1985
#define KSAMTIB_CIGAM_2SFFJ 0x5981 /* For detecting wrong-endian fs */
- from include/linux/jffs2.h
%
/*
* At first I thought these guys were on crack, but then I discovered the
* LART.
*/
- comment from include/linux/mtd/cfi_endian.h
%
Anyone releasing binary only modules does so having made their own appropriate
risk assessment and having talked (I hope) to their insurers
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
The kernel is intended as the arbiter between userspace and hardware,
and userspace and userspace. Format conversion has nothing to do with
arbitration.
- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
I also never expected Intel to dispose of themselves in such
a cute way.
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
No. Sell the card to a windows user buy a cheap taiwanese mass market ethernet and
spend the rest on the faster CPU. I bet that is more cost effective for
DES performance..
- Alan Cox not recommending NICs with built-in crypto engines
%
But in my experience you have a better chance of getting a straight answer out
of a politician than intels networking folks. Maybe they have reformed
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<JALH> lxrbot, whereis olaf?
<lxrbot> olaf is Not used
* JALH runs
<Russ|werk> JALH: why
<Russ|werk> its not like you did something like this:
<Russ|werk> lxrbot, whereis lubrication
<lxrbot> lubrication is Not used
<JALH> muwhaha
<Russ|werk> then...it would be time to run
- abusing lxrbot on #kernelnewbies
%
<erikm> cleartape: kernels don't do magic, they just implement mechanisms
- Erik Mouw on #kernelnewbies
%
... and for absolute majority of programmers additional shared objects mean
additional fsckup sources. I don't trust them to write correct async code.
OK, so I don't trust the majority of programmers to find their dicks if
you take their Visual Masturbation Aid++ away, but that's another story -
I'm talking about otherwise clued people, not burger-flippers armed with
Foo For Complete Dummies in 24 Hours.
- Al Viro about multi-threading on linux-kernel
%
> There's not a court in the civilised world that would uphold the GPL in that
> scenario.
Yes but the concern is the USA 8)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Drivers are a more complex issue. I'm not opposed to binary only drivers,
providing its easy to tell they are there and dump all bug reports about them.
Freedom generally includes the right to give up freedom. I'll tell people its
a bad idea but once they get caught, well it was their right to do so...
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Basically, I want people to know that when they use binary-only modules,
it's THEIR problem. I want people to know that in their bones, and I
want it shouted out from the rooftops. I want people to wake up in a
cold sweat every once in a while if they use binary-only modules.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
I'm not a lawyer. I don't even play one on TV.
- Linus Torvalds on the gcc mailing list
%
Linus, Alan - Please apply the following self-explanatory patch.
+ /* LynuxWorks are politely reminded that removing copyright
+ notices is an offence under the Copyright Design and
+ Patents Act 1988, and under equivalent non-UK law in
+ accordance with the Berne Convention. */
+ printk("Portions (C) 2000, 2001 Red Hat, Inc.\n");
- David Woodhouse on linux-kernel
%
There seems to be a bug in the mail routing again. It may be related to the
recent problem with ditto copier history outbreaks on Linux S/390 and the
infamous 'pdp-11 memory subsystem' article routing bug that plagued
comp.os.minix once.
In the meantime can people check that their mailer hasnt spontaneously added
linux-kernel to their history articles before posting them ?
- Alan Cox about off topic cross posting on lkml
%
Hurd and architecture in one sentence? Uh-oh...
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Microsoft is like a mountain with their installed base. Like it
or not, no matter how loud the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow
to it.
- Jeff Merkey on linux-advoca^Wkernel
%
The fact that it takes more code to parse and interpret ACPI than it does to
route traffic on the internet backbones should be a hint something is badly
wrong either in ACPI the spec, ACPI the implenentation or both.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
If you really want to know where you stand, it'll cost you around
$15K and that, in my opinion, is fine. If it isn't worth $15K to
protect your code then it is worth so little to you that there really
is no good reason not to just GPL it from the start.
- Larry McVoy on GPL licensing issues
%
> >
> > Wait. Don't you mean:
Yes. Just ignore me when I show extreme signs of Alzheimers.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
As you point out below, contract law is also involved. Add the DMCA,
UCITA, and Bush 2.0 to the mix, and any lawyer who says he actually
knows what's legal is lying.
- Ian Pilcher on Microsoft "shared source" licensing
%
Of course, some people consider hidden bugs to _be_ fixed. I don't believe
in that particulat philosophy myself.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Would you like to code up this, test it and send it to me?
Btw, good debugging!
Linus "lazy is my middle name" Torvalds
%
<mikkei> There once was a guy called Riel,
<mikkei> Who thought Tux should have been an Eel,
<mikkei> Although he was a fine programmer,
<mikkei> He called the little penguin,
<mikkei> A veritably ugly hack,
<mikkei> But they all laughed and said "He's on crack!"
<mikkei>
<mikkei> There once was a guy called Riel,
<mikkei> At whose feet the newbies would kneel,
<mikkei> Each and every day, one newbie would say:
<mikkei> "Make my patch the Patch of the Month."
<mikkei> But Riel, saying no with a negative, "hummpfh"
<mikkei> Would say "fsck off" to the newbies's dismay.
- Anonymous on #kernelnewbies
%
Of course the writer of this is Polish and the drives are Hungarian ...
- Alan Cox on hard disk problems
%
Let me explain it to you slowly:
Disks. Write. One. Write. At. A. Time.
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
Q: I like to dynamically load buggy drivers into the kernel because that is
what kernel developers like me do for fun, how can I better avoid data
corruption when doing this and using ReiserFS?
A: Do sync before insmod. (Alan Cox's good suggestion.)
- Hans Reiser on linux-kernel
%
The thing that really pisses me off about ReiserFS from time to time
is not the "FS" part...
- Henning Schmiedehausen on linux-kernel
%
It's not broken, you silly boy.
- Linus Torvalds offending people on the gcc mailing list
%
> Linus seems to be getting a little emotional in this discussion but swearing
> does not replace data.
Hey, I called people silly, not <censored>. You must have a very low
tolerance ;)
- Linus Torvalds about offending people on the gcc mailing list
%
James Simmons wrote:
> Crap can work. Given enough thrust pigs will fly, but it's not necessary a
> good idea. [ Alexander Viro on linux-kernel ]
Watch the attributions.
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine.
However, this is not necessarily a good idea.
It is hard to be sure where they are going to land,
and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.
From RFC1925, R Callon, 1996.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Looks nice to me but about the only way you are likely to get Linus to take
in kernel debugging patches is to turn them into hex and disguise them as USB
firmware ;)
- Alan Cox's guide on submitting Linux patches, today:
chapter #3, kernel debuggers
%
With the current ACPI code in my test boxes it seems to be no worse than
APM, unfortunately it would be hard to be worse.
- Alan Cox on the ACPI mailing list
%
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Or are they just trying to strongarm the move to the horrid ACPI tables?
They are certainly involved in the latter but whether this is related or
a seperate evil empire scheme is open to question
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Most EULA's are not legal contracts. In civilised countries the right to
disassemble is enshrined in law (ironically it comes in Europe from trying
to keep car manufacturers from running monopolistic scams not from the
software people doing the same)
In the USA its a lot less clear. You can find laws explicitly claiming both,
and since US law is primarily about who has loads of money, its a bit
irrelevant
- Alan Cox explaining EULA's on linux-kernel
%
Alan Cox wrote:
> Linus Torvalds wrote:
> > And quite frankly, if your disk can push 50MB/s through a 1kB
> > non-contiguous filesystem, then my name is Bugs Bunny.
>
> Hi Bugs 8), previously Frodo Rabbit, .. I think you watch too much kids tv
> 8)
Three kids will do that to you. Some day, you too will be there.
- Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
When devfs went into the tree, the word was "at least it will
make people look at the code". Well, it did. Veni, vidi, vomere.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
> valerie kernel: mtrr: your CPUs had inconsistent variable MTRR settings
> valerie kernel: mtrr: probably your BIOS does not setup all CPUs
It indicates your bios authors can't read standards. Thats a quite normal
state of affairs, so common that the kernel cleans up after them
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<Russ> I think the linux 2.4 VM is broken...it says, "warning, your memory
is not optimized, click here to get memturbo". Is riel aware of
this problem?
- Russ Dill on #kernelnewbies
%
<JALH> regex are more than some crappy posix thing
<JALH> they are an art form
- Marc Zealey on #kernelnewbies
%
[ Hey, I can have long discussions by myself. I don't need you guys to
answer me at all.
This must be what senility feels like. Linus "doddering fool" Torvalds ]
%
Re-sending is always the right thing to do. Sometimes it takes a few
times, and you can add a small exasperated message at the top by the third
time ("Don't you love me any more?").
- Linus Torvalds about sending patches to him
%
Remember: the biggest mistake to do is to overdesign. The road to hell is
paved with good intentions.
- Linus on linux-kernel
%
Also, I've been getting a _lot_ of patches, and if yours didn't show up
it's because I got too many. Never fear, there's always tomorrow. Except
in this case it's "in a week or two".
- Linus Torvalds announcing his holiday on linux-kernel
%
I recall hearing that highly-classified data must be destroyed by
physically shredding the medium. Yes, throw your disk drive in the
shredder! (Just imagine the class of machinery required to digest an RA81
HDA.)
- Mark Wood on linux-kernel
%
> The only idea is that 2.4.x kernel turns off cache (L1 & L2) on
> processor (on my cpu). How can I check it? Any ideas?
We don't touch the caches like that. First guess is to disable the ACPI
support, because we've seen that do a million bogus things
- Alan Cox explaining the merits of ACPI on linux-kernel
%
> ... but i could not found any source code or
> information in Internet.
How strange. The kernel source code is definitely on the internet, and
definitely contains drivers that implement internal layering -
nrdev, shaper, the sync cards, isdn
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
> ... And aren't you one of the Preists of Text in
> /proc -- those of the belief in managing everything with 'cat' and 'vi'.
No. That would be Al Viro.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Ricky Beam wrote:
> So basically, you had no fucking clue
Since you're the expert, why won't we all wait for
YOUR patch to fix the problem? ;)
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
Russell King wrote:
> I'll look into it, produce a patch, but I'm not a VM hacker.
You know what a pte is so you're a VM hacker ;-)
- Daniel Phillips on linux-kernel
%
I believe the Committee for the Preservation of Welsh Poetry are pretty
settled on the -ac tree. Aren't they doing an audio CD of Alan reciting
the TCP/IP stack sources?
- Rich Hohensee on linux-kernel
%
That reminds me, I have to add this config entry to kbuild.
CONFIG_LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
Use Welsh
- Keith Owens on linux-kernel
%
> Wouldn't it have made more sense to make the 'len' parameter an unsigned int?
Oh yes.
And wouldn't it be nicer if the sky was pink, and God came personally down
to earth and stopped all wrans and made you king?
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel?
%
> Sorry, at this point we are not allowed to publish the source code of the
> lcs and qeth drivers (due to the use of confidential hardware interface
> specifications). We make those modules available only in binary form
> on our developerWorks web site.
>
Gosh. I didn't know you guys were so advanced that you didn't use
an electronic hardware interface! Your 'hardware interface specifications'
use magnetohydrodynamics, and they are top-secret, right?
- Richard B. Johnson on linux-kernel
%
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> How the h*ll did you happen to actually notice this?
Some combination of blind luck, curiosity, pride, and Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder...
- John Byrne on linux-kernel
%
You're so full of shit that it's incredible.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Well, I have done sparc assembly in my time (remember Dave Sitsky and
I did a port of the kernel to the ultrasparc running in 32-bit mode
before you did the sparc64 port) but the stuff you're doing in there
isn't just assembly, it's magic assembly. ;)
- Paul Mackerras admiring Dave Miller's assembly on linux-kernel
%
> That is reimplementing file system functionality in user space.
> I'm in doubts that this is considered good design...
Keeping things out of the kernel is good design. Your block indirections
are no different to other database formats. Perhaps you think we should
have fsql_operation() and libdb in kernel 8)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Todays reading is from RFC990 in the book of Reynolds & Postel, page number 6
And the IETF spake thusly
[...]
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
What is it about so many mail system authors and lacking sense of humour.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Now for the Sacrifices.
At this point, I'd like to sacrifice a Red Hat Linux 6.2 CD to Alan Cox.
I would also like to sacrifice Minix 1.3(?) installation diskettes to
Linus Torvalds.
I perform these sacrifices in the hope that enlightenment comes to me.
- Nicholas Knight on linux-kernel
%
But hey, at the end of the day, numbers rule.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
/*
* Check for clue free BIOS implementations who use
* the following QA technique
*
* [ Write BIOS Code ]<------
* | ^
* < Does it Compile >----N--
* |Y ^
* < Does it Boot Win98 >-N--
* |Y
* [Ship It]
*
*/
- comment from arch/i386/kernel/dmi_scan.c
%
<Peaker> the difference between theory and practice is just a lot of work
- from #offtopic (the offtopic chat channel of #kernelnewbies)
%
Anyway, Zen And Art Of Feeding Patches Into Tree is a topic for a different
thread...
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Eric Biederman wrote:
> That added to the fact that last time someone ran the numbers linux
> was considerably faster than the BSD for mm type operations when not
> swapping. And this is the common case.
"Linux VM works wonderfully when nobody is using it"
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
> (infact I never had a single report), but well we'll verify that in
Richard, is that you? What had you done with real Andrea?
- Al Viro trying to beat two people with one cluebat
%
As I'm sure you're all aware, being experts in userland programming, that
the above obviously cannot work and is totally bogus.
- Russell King on linux-kernel
%
I don't suffer from stallmanellosis
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
... mindreading equipment is currently classified CIA property at
best (hello echelon!)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
The kernel is not there to cover up for usermode programmers inability
to get things right. It has enough to do covering up for the hardware folk
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
> If you took my patch for it, PLEASE don't send it for inclusion; it's an
> evil hack and no longer needed when Intel fixes the bug in their 440GX bios.
"when" is not a word I find useful about most bios bugs. Try "if" or
"less likely that being hit on the head by an asteroid"
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
With the current lunatic US congress proposals on security, crypto and
building big brother into all PC's I'd say allowing non GPL security modules
is positively dangerous to the well being of non US citizens
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
> Yes *please*! Finally we could introduce proper support for 64-bit
> inode numbers too!
Right. As soon as userland is audited for places where it uses int
for storing inode numbers - just a couple of months after MS fixes
all security holes in their software. By then we'll need 128bit time_t,
though...
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Cuba is within small boat distance. I thought it was going to be twenty
years before the direction changed, now Im not so sure
- Alan Cox on crazy US computer security laws
%
Catastrophic failure of the IDE cable???.
What are you doing to the poor thing, jumping on it?
- Beau Kuiper on linux-kernel
%
Let's start with conslutants who kept pushing crap into said network.
And continue with those who had bred tons of worthless "certified"
wankers pretending to be sysadmins, driving the wages down and replacing
clued people with illiterate trash. Getting rid of script kiddies is
nice, but fsckwits who are directly responsible for current situation
should be first against the wall.
- Al Viro on virus attacks
%
> Can you explain this behaviour?
Yes
--
Alan
[Oh wait you want to know why...]
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
PnPBIOS is a PC specific affliction. Other platforms have more elegantly
designed but even buggier solutions
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
This is a BP6 FAQ. Try increasing the voltage to your CPUs by .1V, or
by taking the BP6 and introducing it to a hammer. Either should be an
improvement.
- Benjamian LaHaise not recommending the Abit BP6 motherboard on lkml
%
objdump -h `modprobe -l` | sed -ne '/__ksym/h;$b1;\:^/:!d;:1;x;s/:.*//p;'
Gotta love those sed hieroglyphics :-)
- Keith Owens on linux-kernel
%
I actually use the trees I release and I want to keep my machines working
- Alan Cox recommending his -ac trees on linux-kernel
%
<viro> "scanf is tough" -- programmer Barbie...
- Al Viro on #kernelnewbies
%
In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd
people.
- Linus on MAP_COPY
%
Now, somebody who _isn't_ stupid (and that, of course, is me), immediately
goes "well, _duh_, why don't you speed up read() instead?".
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
I guess thinking about the implications will come when
the Hurd people seriously start porting their beast to
other microkernels, say L4 ;)
This should be a spectacle worth watching (from a safe
distance).
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
Aren't we lucky our documentation is so sparse noone can accuse us of being
inconsistent? 8)
- Rusty Russell on linux-kernel
%
I would suggest re-naming "rmbdd()". I _assume_ that "dd" stands for "data
dependent", but quite frankly, "rmbdd" looks like the standard IBM "we
lost every vowel ever invented" kind of assembly lanaguage to me.
I'm sure that having programmed PPC assembly language, you find it very
natural (IBM motto: "We found five vowels hiding in a corner, and we used
them _all_ for the 'eieio' instruction so that we wouldn't have to use
them anywhere else").
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
(IBM motto: "We found five vowels hiding in a corner, and we used
them _all_ for the 'eieio' instruction so that we wouldn't have to use
them anywhere else").
[...]
(IBM motto: "If you can't read our assembly language, you must be
borderline dyslexic, and we don't want you to mess with it anyway").
[...]
(IBM motto: "TEN vowels? Don't you know vowels are scrd?")
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
(But Intel has redefined the memory ordering so many times that they might
redefine it in the future too and say that dependent loads are ok. I
suspect most of the definitions are of the type "Oh, it used to be ok in
the implementation even though it wasn't defined, and it turns out that
Windows doesn't work if we change it, so we'll define darkness to be the
new standard"..)
- Linus Torvalds
%
Oh, and before people start telling me that RCU was successfully used in
AIX/projectX/xxxx/etc, you have to realize that I don't give a rats *ss
about the fact that there are OS's out there that are "more scalable".
- Linus Torvalds
%
The last time I looked, Solaris and AIX and all the rest of the "scalable"
systems were absolute pigs on smaller hardware, and the "scalability" in
them often translates into "we scale linearly to many CPU's by being
really bad even on one".
- Linus Torvalds
%
In the same world where Vomit-Making System is elegant, SGI "designs" are
and NT is The Wave Of Future(tm). Pardon me, but I'll stay in our universe
and away from the drugs of such power.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
What would you expect to gain from XIP besides being buzzword
compliant?
- Erik Mouw on linux-arm-kernel
%
> I got a kernel crash when dial up. But I am using
> 2.4.0-rmk1 and pppd-2.4.1. Is there any known ppp problem
> in that release? Will it help if I upgrade my kernel?
Who knows, we're now many versions ahead, many bugs have been fixed, and
a lot of work has been done.
- Russell King on linux-arm-kernel
%
> In short, now you need filesystem versioning at a per-page level etc.
*ding* *ding* *ding* we have a near winner. Remember, folks, Hurd had been
started by people who not only don't understand UNIX, but detest it.
ITS/TWENEX refugees. And semantics in question comes from there -
they had "open and make sure that anyone who tries to modify will get
a new version, leaving one we'd opened unchanged".
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
HP LaserJetIII wrote:
> How to turn off faucet?
>
Now that's a good one! Somebody's mucking with my print-server.
Sorry. I'm gonna get my gun....
- Richard Johnson on linux-kernel
%
Carrots work on rabbits, they don't work on hungry weasels.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Attached is buzby.c, the command
buzby -poll
sends sanity commands to the DSP every two seconds to, errrr, keep it
from going insane. Works with the wife too :-)
- Derek Mulcahy on tuxscreen-devel
%
:) Even an (ex)girlfriend of mine said that Linux is much better than Windows,
because of the messages on boot ("superb cyber feeling a'la Matrix :)").
- G�bor L�n�rt on linux-kernel
%
Oh, come on. Every government is right on some issues. Proof:
For every government X there is at least one government Y such that X
would claim that Y is a bunch of corrupt assholes. Since every government
is a bunch of corrupt assholes, every government is right at least in one
of its claims.
- Al Viro discussing politics on linux-kernel
%
But I do know, that an Alan at home, co-working with his under-ground
cluster of gnomes, does a hell-of-a-lot more good for free software
than an Alan in a US-prison as yet another victim of "justice".
- David Weinehall discussing the DMCA/SSSCA on linux-kernel
%
Please use an explicit test - I know gcc suggest just an extra set of
parenthesis, but I'm personally convinced that is just because some gcc
people have been damaged by too much LISP.
- Linus Torvalds discussing gcc requirements on linux-kernel
%
If Nvidia would like to pay me as much as Microsoft is paid for driver
certification then I might be able to find the time
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Chris Rumpf wrote:
> I would like to join this mailing list.
you want all of us to give you a call saying you're welcome ??
- elko@home.nl on linux-kernel
%
Dave I can produce equivalently valid microbenchmarks showing Linux works
much better with the scheduler disabled. They are worth about as much as
your benchmarks for that optimisation and they likewise ignore a slightly
important object known as "the big picture"
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Numbers talk, bullshit walks.
- Dave Miller on linux-kernel
%
Interface definitions tend to be treated a little differently to "code". But
as I keep trying to beat into people - if you are going to mix GPL and non
GPL code see a lawyer - thats what they are there for
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
"scanf is tough" --- programmer Barbie...
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
Come on Al, if you have real arguments let hear them, if you want to insult
people you gotta do better than that above. :)
- Jakob �stergaard poking Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
..... using XML would just be shooting birds with tactical nukes. E.g.
lots of fun, but a little expensive and not really necessary.
- Jakob �stergaard about using XML in /proc file on linux-kernel
%
On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Martin Dalecki wrote:
> Every BASTARD out there telling the world, that parsing ASCII formatted
> files
What was your username, again?
- Alexander Viro in BOFH mode on linux-kernel
%
So the current heuristic provably sucks. We have cold hard numbers, and
quite frankly, Al, there is very very little point in arguing against
numbers. It's silly. "Gimme an S, gimme a U, gimme a C, gimme a K -
S-U-C-K". The current one sucks.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Well we could simplify it further by putting all configuration options under
a single menu called "things".
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Subject: Re: Yet another design for /proc. Or actually /kernel.
> Here's my go at a new design for /proc. I designed it from a userland
> point of view and tried not to drown myself into details.
Did you have to change the subject line. It makes it harder to kill file
when people keep doing that
%
Your reasoning is ............................. (fill in the blank)
- Russell King on the linux-arm mailing list
%
> There is an easy way for you, or even better, Linus to stop these
discussions:
> Just say, in unambigous words, what kind of patch you would accept, if any.
.procmailrc one would do nicely.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
> ScanMail for Microsoft Exchange has detected virus-infected attachment(s).
> Warning to sender. ScanMail detected a virus in an email attachment you
sent.
You are an idiot! You have deleted a correctly-written important
shell-script. You, again, are an IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT, creep.
- Richard B. Johnson on linux-kernel
%
Didn't you hear? I think Linus broke the news awhile back: Alan has the
uncanny ability to fork() himself infinitely many times. And he has no
resource contention, so he scales O(1).
- Robert Love on linux-kernel
%
> ... What will be next, maybe you disable to run non GPL
> executables under linux ?
Actually no. We are researching how to stop trolls posting to the kernel
list as our main AI project.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Tim Schmielau wrote:
> the appended patch enables 32 bit linux boxes to display more than
> 497.1 days of uptime. No user land application changes are needed.
Thank you for doing this labor of love -
I will let you know how it goes sometime
after March 23, 2003 -
- J Sloan on linux-kernel
%
Alexander Viro wrote:
> You mean that you are unable to read any of the core kernel source?
> That would explain a lot...
Were you born rude, or did you have to practice it?
- Richard Gooch on linux-kernel
%
Microsoft likes to discard vulnerabilities by "no standard client
would do this." No, and no "standard visitor" would apply a crowbar
to your patio door, either.
- H. Peter Anvin on IE6 problems with linux servers
%
> Andrew explicitely did not want to use DMI scanner.
I didnt want intel to invent ACPI either. The realities in both cases dont
match the goals
- Alan Cox on the ACPI mailing list
%
Having your own personal custom language dialect might be tempting but it is
normally something only the lisp community do.
- Alan Cox on the linux-kernel mailing list
%
"90% of everything is crap", Its called Sturgeon's law 8)
One of the problems is indeed finding the good bits
- Alan Cox
%
I have a better idea: force CONFIG_DEBUG_* if CONFIG_DEVFS_FS had
been set _and_ taint the kernel with new flag - Known_Crap
- Al Viro on irc
%
Using a cluster to hide the fact that the underlying systems crash
regularly is an extremely dangerous way to manage a computing environment.
- Matt Dillon in http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=153
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who think that MyVariableIsBiggerThanYourVariable is a
good name
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who define a function with 42 arguments and body being
return (foo == bar) ? TRUE : FALSE;
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who add 1001st broken implementation of memcmp(), call it
FooTurdCompare and prepend it with 20x80 block comment.
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who use typedefs like WORD, DWORD, BYTE, IMANIDIOTSHOOTME
and other crap from the same source (OK, they don't write the last one
explicitly - not that it wasn't obvious from the rest of their,
ahem, code).
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who use Hungarian notation for no good reason and come up
with structure fields that sound like street names from R'Lyeh
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who introduce wrappers for standard kernel stuff - like,
say it, typedef int Int32; and sprinkle their crap with
per-architecture ifdefs.
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
indent does _not_ solve the problem of:
* buggers who think that cpp is Just The Thing and produce turds
that would make srb cringe in disgust.
- Alexander Viro on coding style
%
Alexander Viro wrote:
> Al, -><- close to setting up a Linux Kernel Hall of Shame - one with
names of
> wankers (both individual and coprorat ones) responsible, their code and
> commentary on said code...
Please, please, please, I'm begging you, please do this. It's the only way
people learn quickly. Being nice is great, but nothing works faster than
a cold shower of public humiliation :-)
- Larry McVoy on linux-kernel
%
We need to teach Linus about "taste" in drivers. His core code taste is
impeccable, but I'm not fond of his driver taste ;)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<wli> sleep is such a waste of time
- excerpt from #offtopic (the #kernelnewbies off-topic channel)
%
Sorry about off-topic. I thought I was posting to Usenet.
- William Park on linux-kernel
%
Davide Libenzi wrote:
> It's not easy to get this right anyway.
Balancing the pull and push mechanisms in the scheduler while trying
to predict the future? "Not easy" is an excellent description.
- Rusty Russell on linux-kernel
%
Sheesh... FreeBSD used to have a big advantage over Linux - relative lack
of clueless advocates. What a pity that it's gone...
- Al Viro on c.u.b.freebsd.misc
%
Christoph, please remember that irony is not available between the Canadian
and Mexican border.... you are confusing them again 8)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Daniel Phillips wrote:
> Hi Dana,
>
> Are you still interested in signing up for a kernel project? I've got a good
> one I think would be perfect for you.
Hey Dana,
I have a long list of projects you can work on, too. Let me know.
Jeff
;-)
- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
And there was much suffering among the people, for g++ was a necessity. And
one rose up from the mass and cried, "Lord Root, if thou canst not help us,
then call upon the gods of far gcc@gcc.gnu.org for among them are sages of
wisdom who may be of help!"
- bug report from Sean Callanan send to the GCC mailing list
%
There is a bog-standard way to combine several files in one - cpio. Or tar.
No need to bring Apple Shit-For-Design(tm)(r) when standard tools are quite
enough.
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
Hey, considering that Ada has every single language feature ever imagined,
and probably some that nobody reasonably _should_ have imagined, I'm not
surprised.
- Linus on the gcc mailing list
%
Where are the negative comments from Al? (Al _always_ has negative
comments and suggestions for improvements, don't try to say that he also
liked it unconditionally ;)
- Linus Torvalds about Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
There is a word for that and that word is "crap".
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
... and I'm quite sure that EMACS could do it easily. Let's not talk
about GNU bloatware, OK?
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
I guess it's a pretty quiet week in kernel-hacker land. Must be,
otherwise people would have better things to do than argue over KB
vs. KiB.
- Eric S. Raymond on linux-kernel
%
IMHO you have an overdeveloped faith in technology 8)
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Keith Owens wrote:
> And why is Al Viro's email address not in CREDITS or MAINTAINERS? We
> should have somewhere to complain to ;).
<shrug> I _do_ read l-k.
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
Lots of luck ... please pass your crack pipe arounds so the rest of us
idiots can see your vision or lack of ...
- Andre Hedrick on linux-kernel
%
I just wish I could spell.
- Andre Hedrick on linux-kernel
%
Andre Hedrick wrote:
>
> Lots of luck ... please pass your crack pipe arounds so the rest of us
> idiots can see your vision or lack of ...
Heh. I think I must have passed it on to you long ago, and you never gave
it back, you sneaky bastard ;)
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
I'm no fscking genius and no merge helpers in the world would help here.
- Alexander Viro on source versioning systems
%
Most mangled diffs I get are caused by pine. Fixing pine would do more
wonders than any magical patchbot.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Set it to use vi as editor, rm `which pico` and be happy - usually patch
is mangled by pico, not pine itself.
..ooO(and if somebody starts whining "but puko is user-friendly" you don't want
their patches anyway)
- Alexander Viro giving advice on pine&pico
%
Well you can educate Al, or everyone submitting patches. Al may be a hard
nut to crack but there is only one of him ;)
- Alan Cox about Alexander Viro
%
Sleepable[1] functions are often ones which access user-space memory and the
like
[1] pedants may argue this is incorrect terminology for a function that may
cause the process invoking it to sleep, but I refer them to their earlier
brethren who insisted upon "laugh-at-able" instead of "laughable" and similar
- John Levon on the kernelnewbies list
%
<wli> perl bloweth, yea, and it sucketh, and lo, behold that when the
perl goat bloweth, it bloweth goats, and sheep, and all the fauna and
even some of the flora of the vineyard.
- William Lee Irwin on #kernelnewbies
%
<SoulBlazer> im just wondering if the "kernel people" (you know those small
elves that run around the insides of the kernel) recommend
otherwise ..
<gregkh> I'm a small elf?
<sarnold> gregkh, heh, I'd hate to run into a large elf :)
* gregkh is a tad larger than a small elf.
<jcopenha> nah.. no large elves.. they just form a cluster =)
- Excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
Victor has had the same message for years, as have others like Larry McVoy
(in fact if Larry and Victor agree on something its unusual enough to
remember).
- Alan Cox about Victor Yodaiken on linux-kernel
%
You're all DEAD WRONG.
IDE and SCSI both suck!
The way of the future is punch cards!
- Stevie O trying to stop a flamewar on linux-kernel
%
This has always been a really FUN argument
IDE vs. SCSI
BTW, why not add FC-AL or Serial-ATA into the mix, too?
- Dana Lacoste on linux-kernel
%
Nah, I'll try and submit some patches do CodingStyle, for discussion. Hey,
people here _love_ to discuss important things like coding style, dontcha?
8)
- Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo on linux-kernel
%
However, la donna e mobile, and I'm a primus donna, fer shure.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
I don't know if the Debian package setup protects
you from installing i686 binaries on an i486, but I bet within 48 hours of
this discussion it will do anyway
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
I guess it's time to revise the old Unix saying "everything is a file"
to "everything is a file system" =)
- David Weinehall on linux-kernel
%
Rusty Russell wrote:
Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > Call me picky but I like the name cond_resched() ;-)
>
> ... And I prefer maybe_schedule().
I made everybody unhappy by changing the names of _both_ "cond_yield()"
and "need_yield()". So there.
My tree calls them "cond_resched()" and "need_resched()" respectively.
Nyaah, nyaah, nyaah.
Linus "management skill: saying 'Nyaah' really load" Torvalds
%
> I can use usb-storage in 2.4.16,
> But can't use in 2.4.17
Ah, descriptive bug reports, that are so easy to figure out what is going on :)
- Greg Kroah-Hartman on linux-kernel
%
<JimButton> wli: i never understood why "brk()" has that name
<JimButton> unix naming traditions sometimes resemble jugoslavian islands
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
You're sick. I like you.
- Andrew Morton on linux-kernel
%
> 1. security, if you don't need any modules you can disable modules entirly
> and then it's impossible to add a module without patching the kernel first
> (the module load system calls aren't there)
Oh, please... Give me permissions sufficient to make these syscalls
and in a couple of minutes your kernel will be replaced with ELIZA.
As a bonus - ELIZA running under TOPS-10 on PDP-10 emulator. And talking
to PARRY.
- Alexander Viro on security
%
- Do not export kdev_t to user space, or else "you will be shot" by the
Linus mob.
- Russell King on the linux-arm-kernel mailing list
%
The only real complaint I have is that I'd rather see "radix_root" than
"rat_root". Maybe it is just me, but the latter makes me wonder about
the sex-lives of small furry mammals. Which is not what I really want to
be thinking about.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Ok, ok... I'm sure you both have hard-ons the size of Texas for SCM,
but let's take it to #offtopic, shall we?
- Jeff Garzik fighting a version control flamewar on linux-kernel
%
#ifdef is *the* tool to make obfuscated code.
- Pavel Machek on linux-kernel
%
From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Vomit. How about adding a dma_addr_t %code to the printk function ?
And gcc will discover this via what? Osmosis perhaps? :-)
- Dave Miller on linux-kernel
%
> > Or even XML. Ouch! No need to throw things at me!
>
> It seems they would be thrown! XML in kernel is too much. OpenOffice and
They won't be thrown. They will be slowly driven under the nails, so that
victim could experience the joy equal to that of dealing with XML.
- Alexander Viro on linux-kernel
%
Sometimes it's only a configuration mistake. Not that it mattered,
since "The ALSA is coming! The ALSA is coming!" can be heard from
our forrestals.
- Pete Zaitcev on linux-kernel
%
Matti Aarnio wrote:
> VGER had a locally caused network constipation problem
> from Sat/Sun evening, until less than an hour ago.
Can I just remind everyone that you were in the middle of a very
entertaining CML2 flamewar when the list went down?
- acrimon.beet@gmx.co.uk on linux-kernel
%
> Does this problem still exist on 64-bit machines?
Not in the same way - you'll need a lot of years before you worry about it.
- Alan Cox about jiffies rollover on linux-kernel
%
Ok, I guess I just got so impressed with the size of a 64-bit value that
I was overwhelmed. Consider, for example:
u64 i;
for (i = 1; i != 0; i++);
Now in theory this will count each possible number, but in practice the
machine will die long before it ever finishes.
- George Anzinger on linux-kernel
%
how'd it go? "hundred madmen raping a girl for a week and conceiving a
homicidal maniac - perfect allegory for ISO standard development process.
- Al Viro about standard commitees.
%
Is that, by any chance, the same crowd that stands behind DAFS?
If it _is_ the same crowd - send them to hell, they are beyond hope.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
DAFS isn't a filesystem - it's software equivalent of Freddy Kruger:
85 madmen^Wcompanies, one naive nurse^Widea, nightmares-inflicting monster
conceived as the result of weeks of clusterfuck...
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
All the authors of the linux kernel? That would be more difficult than
herding Debian developers.
- Martijn van Oosterhout on linux-kernel
%
This is exSEXUALy why EXPLICIT POROGRAPHIC filters can't work.
- Richard Johnson explaining spam filters on linux-kernel
%
After all, C is just and advanced assembly interface, which is exactly
why it's such a great language ;-)
- Jes Sorensen on linux-kernel
%
John Levon wrote:
> whilst you're correct (pre-emption has made everything harder), there's
> not much point moaning about it, since it's in linus' kernel now. So
> why bother ?
everyone needs a hobby.
- Victor Yodaiken on linux-kernel
%
Alexander Viro wrote:
> > Patch 1 adds alloc_super and destroy_super methods to struct
file_system. A>
> Vetoed.
Al your mailer appears to have cut off the second paragraph, the one which
I assume started with "Because ..."
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
<movement> d'oh, I guess that explains the system slowness
<movement> cat /dev/zero running for days :P
- John Levon on #offtopic (the off-topic channel for #kernelnewbies)
%
IMNSHO everyone thinking about undeletion in Linux should be
sentenced to 1 year of VMS usage and asked then again if he
still think's that it's a good idea...
- Martin Dalecki on linux-kernel
%
Mark Zealey wrote:
> Actually 3 modes, real, pmode and vm86 mode which is a real mode emulation
> with all the security of pmode. This is how stuff like dosemu works.
Yep, i wonder if you could call SMM (System Management Mode) #4 then, but
thats another weird one. I think there should be a SPM (Sane Processor
Mode) where all the x86 brain damages all disappear and we can just get on
with our coding ;)
- Zwane Mwaikambo on kernelnewbies
%
[...] If you want to hack on plip ping
Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com> he's definitely as far from the Al Viro end
of polite computing as you can get and can probably tell you what bits you
need to tweak
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
yodaiken@fsmlabs.com wrote:
> I thought we were into this for the pure technical thrill-)
I don't know about you, but to me the difference between technological
thrill and masturbation is that real technology actually matters to real
people.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
- IBM nomenclature really is broken. They call disks DASD devices, and
they call their hash table a page table, and they just confuse
themselves and everybody else for no good reason.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Linux is alread carrier (pigeon) grade
-> www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
RIMki@sky.seed.net.tw wrote:
>1. =A4=EB=A6=AC=A4J 5-10 =B8U
>2. =A4@=A4H=A7Y=A5i=B6}=A9=B1 , =A4=A3=A5=B2=A6h=BD=D0=A4H=A4=E2 !
>3. =A5=FE=AC=D9=A5=D8=ABe=A6@=A6=B3 50
=B4X=AD=D3=A5[=B7=F9=A6=A8=A5\=AA=BA=AE=D7=A8=D2 !
>4. =AC=B5=C2=FB=A4f=A8=FD=BFW=AFS ,
=C5=FD=AB=C8=A4H=A6Y=A4F=A6^=A8=FD=B5L=BDa !!
You forgot:
5. =FE=ED=C0=ED=BA=BE=DE=AD=BE=EF
>=BD=D0=B0=D1=C6[=A7=DA=AD=CC=AA=BA=BA=F4=A7} :
>
>http://211.78.42.181:5168
http://127.0.0.1:69/
- Stevie O on linux-kernel
%
<ajh> I always viewed HURD development like the Special Olympics of free
software.
- Is Hurd a opponent to Linux?
%
If you really knew C++, you wouldn't even joke about putting it
in the kernel.
- Richard Johnson on linux-kernel
%
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda to test your performances of hda ...
- Samuel Maftoul giving some sane advice
%
> maximum memory exceeding the available tmpfs as long as they don't all need
> all that memory at once. And, if they do, the patch I just posted will let
> them deal fairly sanely with the situation.
And the address space management stuff in the -ac tree will do all that and
more without force allocating pages and regardless of what other apps do
including without allowing your rude app to kill them.
You are using an axe to batter down a door. Worse than that I fitted a
perfectly good door handle.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
It WILL be kept up-to-date. IOW, submit an API change that may require
filesystem changes without a corresponding patch to that file and I will
hunt you down and hurt you. Badly.
- Al Viro announcing Documentation/filesystems/porting
%
You can fix this problem by setting your system time to 1/1/1970
every time you boot. You could also install Windows-2000/Professional.
That Operating System doesn't stay running long enough to provide
useful evidence.
- Richard Johnson on obfuscating file access time
%
<riel> google rules
<google> rules: http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/overview.html
- Rik van Riel chatting with the bots on #kernelnewbies
%
> If you know that the above works only with [zk(ba)]sh, I don't know
> what point you would be making by stating that it doesn't work with
> tcsh.
Shhhh, you're ruining the free-software-fans-bash-Larry show.
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
<SoulBlazer> i think im going to start the "Save our Kernel Maintainers"
fund
<SoulBlazer> Shave even
<JALH> heh
<SoulBlazer> i wonder how much cash it would take to get AC shaved
<SoulBlazer> him and mad dog
<SoulBlazer> and Dave miller
<SoulBlazer> maybe even Stallman
<SoulBlazer> i dont think stallman would take cash tho
<SoulBlazer> maybe 'utopian currency of friendship'
<JALH> SoulBlazer, I think the shares in the company supplying the
razors/hedge trimmers would rocket
- excerpt from #offtopic, the #kernelnewbies off-topic channel
%
I have been advised by Alan to treat the jiffy wraparound as a scheduled
maintenance event. I tend to trust bearded kernel hackers from Wales.
- Bert Hubert on linux-kernel
%
<qunitela> hch: I hope that I have learned to spell your name by now :)
* qunitela decides to spell right his own name
[+] qunitela now known as quintela
- excerpt from irc
%
Remember: we're not the Judean People's Front, we're the People's Front of
Judea. Or maybe we're the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea. I get
confused.
- Linus' last word on Free Software vs OpenSource..
%
> Remember: we're not the Judean People's Front, we're the People's
> Front of Judea. Or maybe we're the Popular Front for the Liberation
> of Judea. I get confused.
No, we're the Libertarian Front for the People of Judea. Get it right.
- Richard Gooch tries to start yet another flamewar.
%
Public challenges kick ass. As people here know, I love a good flamewar :)
- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
Trust me, i know a lot about war and freedom fighting since i have a
older brother ;)
- "Kiss The Blade" on linux-kernel
%
For future reference - don't anybody else try to send patches as vi scripts,
please. Yes, it's manly, but let's face it, so is bungee-jumping with the
cord tied to your testicles.
- Linux commenting Al Viro's dcache "patch" on lkml.
%
"Neatness is about making it easy to read code *quickly*. The pattern
recognizer in your brain doesn't work as well on a jumbled mess."
- H. Peter Anvin
%
Because you are assuming there will be -one- kind of wackomatic PC
system - IBM's.
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
%
Think of the kernel as a grumpy girlfriend that you just stood up, and
bring flowers next time.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
<billh> That was cute.
<billh> 2.5.30 just flat out crashed early during the boot cycle.
<ahu> 2.5 is real good at that sort of thing
- Excerpt from #offtopic (the offtopic chat channel of #kernelnewbies)
%
Hell.Surfers@cwctv.net wrote:
> YES THEY ARE SENT TO THE LIST, WOULD YOU LIKE COPIES? T hey are dangerous,
they have+gotten people KILLED.
I would suggest that anyone stupid enough to respond to a Nigerian spam
(or any spam, for that matter) sent to a mailing list like LKML
1) Shouldn't be reading LKML
2) Should make an appointment at the local family planning clinic.
3) If they have already reproduced, they should take their kids along.
- David D. Hagood on linux-kernel
%
People do have a right to put their code under whatever license they like.
Now, _I_ won't use the stuff I don't have a source for unless I have
exceptionally good reason to believe that authors of that stuff are
among the few percents of programmers who *can* find their arse without
outside help. But that has nothing to do with licensing or any moral
considerations and everything to the fact that I know what kind of crap
most of the software is.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
> I know this is offtopic, but the spam problem is getting worse,
> could the linux-kernel mail guy/gal, do something,
> the nigerian scams are actually dangerous..
> ^^^^^^^^^^^
Really? That's how I made my first 32-million dollars. Some poor
lady need my back account information so she could wire her dead
husband's money. Works everytime.
- this is where Richard B. Johnson got his money from,
%
* willy posts to /. : TMTA Close To Inking Deal With Playboy
<riel> willy: conserving battery power for other uses ?
<riel> oh wait, that's the _other_ bunny
<willy> riel: laptops are very important to that industry ;-)
<hpa> What's even more amusing is that TMTA's native instruction set
actually
has a PORN instruction
%
Three of your friends throw up after eating chicken salad. Do you think
"I should find more robust friends" or "we should check that refrigerator".
-- Donald Becker, on vortex-bug, suspecting a network-wide problem.
%
The mindless jerks who wrote Outlook and the KLEZ and YAHA viruses will
be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. Well,
just after the mindless jerks of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation,
ofcourse.
- Miquel van Smoorenburg on linux-kernel
%
See my two-liner suggestion (which is admittedly not even compiled, so the
one disadvantage it might have is that it might need to be debugged. But
it's only two lines and doesn't actually change any fundamental part of
any existing algorithms, so debugging shouldn't be a big problem.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell.
%
Look, idunnoigiveup. Like scsi and USB, NFS is a black hole
where akpms fear to tread.
- Andrew Morton (aka akpm) on linux-kernel
%
[no offense intended. if you think my comments harsh, wait until Al
Viro sees your sample driver...]
- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
<ms> ac didn't have enough money/time to train his 1000 gnomes in using bk
<Lathi> fair enough :-)
- excerpt from a bitkeeper discussion on #kernelnewbies
%
<viro> carldani: don't go there unless you want to become _really_ bitter
and
cynical - if you are not right now, you will be
<zwane> carldani: dunno, take your puk^H^Hick
<zwane> carldani: if kernel hacking was food, drivers/ would be kruft dinner
;)
<viro> carldani: working with drivers/* is a moral equivalent of working
helldesk on an ISP
%
Rusty Russell said:
>> May I respectfully disagree again?
>
> Thoughtful and respecful criticism? I didn't think that was
> allowed on linux-kernel any more? 8)
Sorry about that. Won't happen again, I promise.
- Horst von Brand and Rusty Russell on linux-kernel
%
The definition of irony?
Setting one's xscreensaver to BSOD, and then hours later the Linux box
has a kernel panic... with the Windows blue screen of death on the screen.
- Jeff "irony is my middle name" Garzik on linux-kernel
%
0 2 4 6 8 10
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
TROLL-O-METER
- Rik van Riel on linux-kernel
%
<Spyro> the scheduler is evil voodoo :)
<erikm> "here be devils"
<erikm> ehm, dragons ;)
<beak> :/usr/src/linux-2.4.21-rc5$ rgrep -r -i dragons *
<beak> arch/cris/drivers/serial.c:
* There be dragons in this 3k+ line driver
<beak> drivers/block/paride/pd.c:
/* WARNING: here there may be dragons. reset() applies to both drives,
<beak> that's it. no more dragons, and none in scheduler
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
<kull> what about a USB toilet with policy based flushing
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
<zwane> you guys blame acpi too much ;)
<erikm> zwane: if you insist we'll be glad to blame you
<erikm> zwane: please boot with the "nozwane" option :)
<zwane> that will lead to an implosion of the universe
<zwane> and possibly cpu damage
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
Greg KH wrote:
> Please do not add "changelog" type comments to files that do not already
> have changelogs in them. They are unmaintainable within the kernel and
> do nothing to help anyone out.
Ok - that was just my lame attempt to grafitti my name into the kernel :-)
- Bert Hubert on linux-kernel
%
Outlook, n.:
A virus delivery system with added email functionality.
- Kurt Wall on linux-kernel
%
<DannyB> One Linus to rule them all, One kernel.org to find them,
One idiot to bring them all, and addpatches to bind them
- excerpt from #offtopic
%
> A low level user can delete a file owned by root and belonging to group
> root even if the files permissions are 744. This is not in agreement
> with Unix, and is a major security issue.
No, it's your well-earned F for Unix 101. You should focus on Unix permissions
model in general and sticky bit in particular when you take the course again.
Have a nice semester.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
Lisa R. Nelson wrote:
> So much for a friendly group.
You really have seen nothing yet :-)
- Bas Mevissen on linux-kernel
%
Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell.
%
After taking the time to cool down from the testosterone rush commonly
induced by micro optimizations, I recon you're right.
- Muli Ben-Yehuda about optimizations on linux-kernel
%
We're not NT.
Linus
%
With all due respect, whether you are cornered or not is none of our
problems. Neither is whatever passes for your thought process. So far
you have failed to produce anything except handwaving and some remarkably
ugly function prototypes. Not interesting...
- Al Viro in an off-topic thread about "components" on linux-kernel
%
I couldn't resist the irony of posting a post-halloween document
just before halloween.
- Dave Jones announcing the 2.6 post-halloween document on linux-kernel
%
Davide Libenzi wrote:
> So it didn't change much. You've *always* been a bastard when it comes to
> patches :-)
*Snif*. I don't know what to say. Thank you. Your kind words make it all
worth it.
Linus "kernel bastard, and proud of it" Torvalds
%
Because the kernel depends on it existing. "init" literally _is_
special from a kernel standpoint, because its' the "reaper of zombies"
(and, may I add, that would be a great name for a rock band).
- Linus Torvalds
%
Quite frankly, if I was a manager in charge of a PCI Express host bridge,
and it didn't support the old C8C IO access patterns, I'd be so ashamed of
myself that I'd kill my whole development team with rat poison, and then
blame them for the mistake(*).
Do we know of any sudden suspicious death waves inside certain groups at
Intel?
Linus
(*) That's how managers work, after all. Long gone are the days when
personal shame caused you to take personal responsibility.
%
[...] I would really like to see
the names of its "designers" posted for public ridicule. If such duhvelopers
actually exist, they more than deserve recognition.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%
I'm going to be in Australia (and on airplanes) for the week, but we're
all in the capable hands of Andrew, so why worry? The fact that I'm
fleeing the country should in no way be construed as anything sinister at
all, no siree. Nope. I'm innocent, and nobody saw me do it.
- Linus announcing linux-2.6.1
%
If TCP sees packets are lost, it says "oh, congestion", and starts
sending packets more slowly ie introduces delays
between packets. When they no longer get lost, it
speeds up to full speed.
- Pavel Machek on linux-kernel
%
For every time IBM removed one vowel from one of their ppc mnemonics, I'll
remove one "l" from a ppc developer.
We'll see who blinks first.
Linus "payback time" Torvalds
%
"Jinu M." wrote:
> I wanted to know if it is possible to write a Linux device driver
> (kernel loadable module) using C++.
It's possible, but like having sex with a cactus
very painful,
very silly,
very unsatisfactory
and no sane person would touch the cactus afterwards ;P
- Henti Smith on linux-kernel
%
Finally, heres a little ditty, to be sung to the tune of the 'The
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything'
I'm just a user who wanted to suspend,
I didn't want to be a kernel hacker at all!
I'm just a user who wanted to suspend,
and now I'm happy because I can suspend.
Well I've never been to LinuxConf
and I've never written a device driver
And I've never talked to Linus
and I'm not an expert at BK
And I don't normally get paid to do this
and I don't own any hardware manuals
And I've never been to Boston in the fall...
- Nigel Cunningham announcing Software Suspend 2.0 on linux-kernel
%
It is interesting how all of the words in your reply seem to make real
sentances, yet those sentances have nothing to do at all with the topic
at hand.
- Greg Kroah-Hartman on linux-kernel
%
I love people saying 'we' even though they never contributed a single
line of code to the project!
- Jens Axboe turning a troll down on linux-kernel
%
There's something about WAN card manufacturers that seems to
say: If you hate us for the sad driver quality, check back
with our competition and then come back later...
- Daniel Egger on linux-kernel
%
Patrick Burke wrote:
> Patrick Burke with Navistaff. I am currently looking for hardcore Unix
> networking developers for a top NYC area ibank. Know anyone who might be
> interested?
[SNIPPED...]
I tried to patch the kernel with this, but all I got was syntax
errors when I compiled.
- Richard B. Johnson on linux-kernel
%
<c0ywulff> anyone knows S_BIAS
<RoyK> ./include/linux/fs.h:#define S_BIAS (1<<30)
<c0ywulff> RoyK: what is it
<RoyK> it's harry potter's new spell
- excerpt from #kernelnewbies
%
Joerg Schilling wrote:
> Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> > Wrong (as usual)
>
> Useless as usual :-(
Unlike you I spend some of my time looking at large real world Linux
installations.
*Plonk*
- Alan Cox on linux-kernel
(in a massive lkml-crowd vs. Jrg Schilling flamewar)
%
Joerg Schilling <schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de> said:
> And the wrong decision could have even be avoided if people did contact me
> before they did act....
Exactly! They should also contact me and ask politely each time they
consider a change if I'd allow it. Really. The nerve these guys have.
Unbelievable.
- Hort von Brand on linux-kernel
(in a massive lkml-crowd vs. Jrg Schilling flamewar)
%
Hans Reiser wrote:
> How old are you? I thought you were the guy at Linux Tag with fashion
> oriented hair who gave a talk on his XFS work? Did I confuse you with
> someone else?
--- mm1-2.6.9-rc1.orig/CREDITS 2004-08-26 10:37:57.424567967 -0700
+++ mm1-2.6.9-rc1/CREDITS 2004-08-26 11:35:24.977260109 -0700
@@ -2677,6 +2677,14 @@
S: 79098 Freiburg
S: Germany
+N: Hans Reiser
+E: reiser@namesys.com
+W: http://www.namesys.com/
+D: official Linux kernel hairstyle critic
+S: 6979 Exeter Dr
+S: Oakland, CA 94611
+S: USA
+
-- William Lee Irwin on linux-kernel
%
Dave Jones wrote:
> You seem to be under the deluded illusion that all kernel hackers
> do what they do for the money[1].
>
> [1] Whereas everyone knows, its all about the fast cars and chicks.
I dunno about you, but I'm in it for the beer.
-- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
This driver conforms to Linus Confidence Level 2:
It looks right
X It builds
It works
It passes stress tests
-- Jeff Garzik on linux-kernel
%
linux-os wrote:
> Bullshit. Read my post to Alan. Learn something.
Yes I've read your post, I've learned you are an idiot.
- Alan Cox to Richard B. Johnson on the linux-kernel mailing list
%
Also I need your snail mail address, I have a case of hardware to send you
way. Since you have managed to not go insane yet ... I want to help you
get there with ease.
- Andre Hedrick (on linux-kernel) handing over IDE maintainership to
Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz
%
Andrew Morton wrote:
> I'll take patches from anyone ;)
You'll never live it down. Once you get a name for being easy, you'll
always be known as Andrew "patch-ho" Morton.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
Me caveman
Me plug in wireless router
Me watch pretty lights
Me turn on computer
Me up interface
Computer work
Me no care other cavemen use wireless link
- David Miller on linux-kernel
%
The fact that ACPI was designed by a group of monkeys high on LSD, and is
some of the worst designs in the industry obviously makes running it at
_any_ point pretty damn ugly.
- Linus Torvalds on linux-kernel
%
visionary [n]: onanist with strong exhibitionist tendencies; from
"visions", the source of inspiration they refer to when it becomes
obvious that they have lost both sight and capacity for rational
thought.
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
%