4 ms·

Could someone explain or link me to how revision control worked in the very early days of the Linux kernel? I'm aware of BitKeeper, Git et al. but interested in

by bvm 11y ago

Could someone explain or link me to how revision control worked in the very early days of the Linux kernel? I'm aware of BitKeeper, Git et al. but interested in how things worked at its outset.

Sothis 11y ago
Tarballs and patches for the first 10 years apparently! https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcript https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcr...
- digi_owl 11y ago
  And partially why Linus insist on patches being broken down into digestible parts before being sent his way. He would (will?) outright refuse patches that touched multiple kernel subsystems in one go.
  - TorKlingberg 11y ago
    This also forces you to keep a backwards-compatible interface between the two subsystems.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      One lesson userspace fails to take in time and time again...
jlgaddis 11y ago
(N.B.: It's been 10+ years since I've done this, so I'm sure I'm slightly off WRT the file names.) Let's say you had the 2.6.0 source in /usr/src/linux. You would FTP to ftp.kernel.org, download patch-2.6.1.gz into /usr/src and # cd /usr/src # gzip -d patch-2.6.1.gz # patch -p0 < patch-2.6.1 Descend into /usr/src/linux and begin the process of (re)configuring and recompiling your kernel. Side note: there would often be other patches by various kernel developers (e.g. Alan Cox) and they would be named something like "patch-2.6.1-pre6-ac.gz". I recall once coming across a patch by someone I had never heard of -- Don Tuse was his name, apparently. I proceeded to download, e.g., patch-2.4.8-dontuse.gz (or whatever version it was), apply it, and recompile my kernel. It was only later that I realized Don Tuse was actually "Don't Use".
noahm 11y ago
At a conference (IIRC it was LISA in 2000) somebody had posted a joke to the bulletin board. It read: "Lost: one version control system, never used. If found, please return to Linus Torvalds" Version control worked by posting your patches to the mailing list. Linus would apply your patches to his tree, which he'd occasionally tar up and upload to the mirrors.

by bvm 11y ago

Could someone explain or link me to how revision control worked in the very early days of the Linux kernel? I'm aware of BitKeeper, Git et al. but interested in how things worked at its outset.

Sothis 11y ago

Tarballs and patches for the first 10 years apparently! https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcript https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcr...

digi_owl 11y ago
And partially why Linus insist on patches being broken down into digestible parts before being sent his way. He would (will?) outright refuse patches that touched multiple kernel subsystems in one go.
- TorKlingberg 11y ago
  This also forces you to keep a backwards-compatible interface between the two subsystems.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    One lesson userspace fails to take in time and time again...

jlgaddis 11y ago

(N.B.: It's been 10+ years since I've done this, so I'm sure I'm slightly off WRT the file names.) Let's say you had the 2.6.0 source in /usr/src/linux. You would FTP to ftp.kernel.org, download patch-2.6.1.gz into /usr/src and # cd /usr/src # gzip -d patch-2.6.1.gz # patch -p0 < patch-2.6.1 Descend into /usr/src/linux and begin the process of (re)configuring and recompiling your kernel. Side note: there would often be other patches by various kernel developers (e.g. Alan Cox) and they would be named something like "patch-2.6.1-pre6-ac.gz". I recall once coming across a patch by someone I had never heard of -- Don Tuse was his name, apparently. I proceeded to download, e.g., patch-2.4.8-dontuse.gz (or whatever version it was), apply it, and recompile my kernel. It was only later that I realized Don Tuse was actually "Don't Use".

noahm 11y ago

At a conference (IIRC it was LISA in 2000) somebody had posted a joke to the bulletin board. It read: "Lost: one version control system, never used. If found, please return to Linus Torvalds" Version control worked by posting your patches to the mailing list. Linus would apply your patches to his tree, which he'd occasionally tar up and upload to the mirrors.