[elrepo] RHEL6, Linux-4.19 & Kernel-ml: A Kernel Too Far.

[Phil Perry]

On 24/10/18 23:06, Manuel Wolfshant wrote:
> On 10/25/2018 12:51 AM, Alan Bartlett wrote:
>> Those of us who follow proceedings upstream at kernel.org will know
>> that the minimum version of GCC required to build a kernel was updated
>> from 3.2 to 4.6, as of linux-4.19.
>>
>> As GCC version 4.4.7 is shipped with RHEL6 it means that kernel-ml,
>> using the latest released sources from Linus Torvalds, can no longer
>> be built.
>>
>> After a discussion, within the ELRepo Project, it has been decided
>> that as RHEL6 will reach end of life in 25 months time it is
>> appropriate to declare the kernel-ml-4.19.0-1.el6.elrepo package set
>> as a "kernel too far". Whilst the linux-4.18.X branch is still being
>> supported, we shall continue to build and provide the
>> kernel-ml-4.18.X-1.el6.elrepo package sets. Once the linux-4.18.X
>> branch has been declared at EOL, any user of the
>> kernel-ml-4.18.X-1.el6.elrepo package set should either revert to the
>> kernel-lt-4.4.Y-1.el6.elrepo package set or migrate to RHEL7.
> just for my curiosity: why not use the devtoolset-7-gcc ( currently at 
> version 7.2 and 7.3 )  ?
> 

We did look at that option, but decided against it. We felt given the 
age of RHEL6 and where it is within it's lifecycle, it didn't warrant 
the extra work to continue to support a bleeding edge mainline kernel on 
a disto nearing end of life.

We will continue to maintain the 4.18 branch on RHEL6 so long as it is 
maintained upstream. Beyond that, if users need a bleeding edge kernel, 
we feel RHEL7 + kernel-ml is a better option and RHEL6 users still have 
the kernel-lt option available.

It's a lot of work for Alan to maintain the elrepo kernel packages 
across multiple distro/arch's, and to be honest I think he will welcome 
the temporary reduction in workload before taking on the challenge 
afresh for RHEL8.