[ovs-dev] OVS / OVN split - post 2.12

[Ilya Maximets]

On 25.07.2019 21:35, Mark Michelson wrote:
> On 7/25/19 12:37 PM, Ilya Maximets wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> I have a question regarding the split.
>> Sorry if it's obvious from the RFC splitting code which I didn't look at.
>>
>> The question is:
>> How the patches for the common data structures (lists, hash maps) will be
>> applied to OVN? Will we need to post same patch for both repositories in the
>> future if it changes/fixes common libraries? Or all this code will be hosted
>> only in OVS repo and will be included like a submodule or something like that?
>>
>> Best regards, Ilya Maximets.
> 
> Hi Ilya,
> 
> OVN will be a separate repo from OVS. Initially, OVS will be a subtree of OVN, but soon, we will want to be able to build OVN while having a completely separate OVS on the system. When all is said and done, it should be possible to build OVN as long as you have, say, an ovs-devel package installed on your system.
> 
> I think the answer to your question is that as an OVS developer, if you make a change to a core component, you only need to post the change to the OVS repo.
> 
> From an OVN developer's perspective, if an OVN feature/bugfix requires a parallel change to be made to a core OVS library, then the OVN developer will need to post the library change to OVS as well as the usage of that change to OVN. As long as OVS is a subtree of OVN, it's just a matter of ensuring the subtree is kept up to date. However, once OVS is built separately, then configure-time checks of OVS features or minimum version checks will need to be added to OVN to ensure that the code can build properly.
> 
> This approach should place most of the burden of OVN compatibility with OVS on OVN developers rather than OVS developers.

OK. Thanks for explanation!

Best regards, Ilya Maximets.