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Re: Majordomo and few things .



Ariel Biener wrote:

>    I would take that recommendation with care. There are a few things one
> wouldn't want to hardwire in the kernel, and those are things that are
> being regularily updated, like SCSI controllers drivers and ethernet cards
> drivers.
>    It's fairly easy to recompile a new module for your ethernet card (like
> for example, the 3c59x.c 3com driver that is constantly updated), then
> rmmod the old one, insmod the new one, reconfig the routing table, and
> you're back and running in say, 20 seconds. This is critical for servers
> that have many users on them, or are involved with lots of networking. You
> wouldn't want to reboot a server that carries 100 users, but you could
> change the driver, and all they would notice would be a short delay.
> 
>    I do agree that some stuff should be hardwired, but one has to bear in
> mind all the aspects of the machine involved.

Everything you say is, of course, true. You just have to weigh things
against each other. I'd rather avoid the security risks that modules
inevitably induce, and bring down the system once a month for kernel
upgrade. In fact, I seldom find it necessary to upgrade single drivers
inbetween patchlevel updates, so it's not really an issue.

Tuvik
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               Tuvik Beker
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