From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-5.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,URIBL_BLOCKED autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 804D8C43214 for ; Fri, 20 Aug 2021 18:28:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B7C261245 for ; Fri, 20 Aug 2021 18:28:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S236212AbhHTS2x (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Aug 2021 14:28:53 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:34720 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S236378AbhHTS2u (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Aug 2021 14:28:50 -0400 Received: from casper.infradead.org (casper.infradead.org [IPv6:2001:8b0:10b:1236::1]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 26F86C061756; Fri, 20 Aug 2021 11:28:12 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infradead.org; s=casper.20170209; h=In-Reply-To:Content-Type:MIME-Version: References:Message-ID:Subject:Cc:To:From:Date:Sender:Reply-To: Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-ID:Content-Description; bh=tdQqeccCak7gZvzJh0sTAGQqu+YU4rsLzWI4kGslWng=; b=ZJbBe6oXsxX7AoqefdSkvbjVKX P5f7bDtiCLrra3haNmrU9N9PCmgaNVQ5s/CNFqinUSqm4Qc/Jnk9gM9hVkQzYqGyZbqN8D70oNeeE Xvyrwn0m9SzLjkao8fmr7ydM/5Xhiks8Z6mqMbYL+0PnJGDerVm9q+bngGnHRsXlMwzv8Wm9u/RQN 67qOSlYM5mos5r+CRhC630VaCVtW7wNULIkBGJDl+s+l0hkEUmzg6EzmIWL5VVWXP9t/mQJU/jihx RPpHOVJGWmqyuoxA/Wb2nbldQOg6ZTwjd9PxbLAjIs2N4FRTEhrAhohu3r3RVPRFZiDQTLy+wHi/A smy81+gg==; Received: from willy by casper.infradead.org with local (Exim 4.94.2 #2 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1mH9DC-006qfn-8u; Fri, 20 Aug 2021 18:26:17 +0000 Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2021 19:25:50 +0100 From: Matthew Wilcox To: Joe Perches Cc: LKML , Dave Hansen , Dwaipayan Ray , LukasBulwahn , linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, devicetree@vger.kernel.org, linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org, linux-riscv@lists.infradead.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-csky@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: What is the oldest perl version being used with the kernel ? update oldest supported to 5.14 ? Message-ID: References: <37ec9a36a5f7c71a8e23ab45fd3b7f20efd5da24.camel@perches.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <37ec9a36a5f7c71a8e23ab45fd3b7f20efd5da24.camel@perches.com> Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 10:27:59AM -0700, Joe Perches wrote: > Perl 5.8 is nearly 20 years old now. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_5_version_history > > checkpatch uses regexes that are incompatible with perl versions > earlier than 5.10, but these uses are currently runtime checked > and skipped if the perl version is too old. This runtime checking > skips several useful tests. > > There is also some desire for tools like kernel-doc, checkpatch and > get_maintainer to use a common library of regexes and functions: > https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/YR2lexDd9N0sWxIW@casper.infradead.org/ > > It'd be useful to set the minimum perl version to something more modern. > > I believe perl 5.14, now only a decade old, is a reasonable target. > > Any objections or suggestions for a newer minimum version? Not an objection per se, but some data points. Oracle Linux 5 (released 2007, still under support) has perl 5.8.8 Oracle Linux 6 (released 2011) has perl 5.10.1 Oracle Linux 7 (released 2014) has perl 5.16.3 Oracle Linux 8 (released 2019) has perl 5.26.3 I don't know that we need to be able to build on a distro from 2007 or even from 2011. I think it's reasonable to require updating to a 2014 distro in order to build a 2021 kernel. For comparison, we currently require gcc-4.9 to build the kernel, and 4.9.0 was released in 2014. So perl-5.16 wouldn't be an unreasonable requirement, I believe.