Hi everyone,

Looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-kernel-rules.html there are a number of criteria for patches to -stable releases.

However, there is no mention of preserving the stability of internal kernel ABIs and/or APIs.

Do successive patch releases of -stable kernels provide any guarantees that they will not change ABIs and/or APIs, remove functionality, change behaviour, etc.? For example, would a -stable commit be allowed to make a change that would break an out-of-tree (but open-source) device driver if that's the only way to fix a bug?

I know that during the development of new major/minor versions developers are free to break ABIs and APIs at will as long as they fix up all the in-tree code. Does that still hold true for -stable commits or do things get more restrictive?

Thanks, Chris