Xen/OpenVZ out-of-tree module builds and ABI

[Russ Allbery]

Hello, kernel folks.

We (the NVIDIA packaging team) noticed a commit from the latest Debian
kernel packaging that said:

     Refresh ABI reference files

     Remove files for OpenVZ and Xen featuresets, where we are not
     trying to keep the module ABI stable.

(r16351) and weren't entirely sure what that meant.

We maintain module builds for the NVIDIA kernel drivers (which are
non-free) using a build package that builds versions for the current
kernel, primarily for stable releases.  Currently, we're building modules
for Xen and OpenVZ kernels as well as the regular kernels.

Does this change mean that the module builds for Xen and OpenVZ kernels
may not continue working with later versions of those kernels because the
ABI might not be stable?  Or is this a more limited change that means
something more restrictive than that and isn't something we need to worry
about?

I ask primarily because we want to be sure it makes sense to release
pre-built modules for Xen and OpenVZ kernels with squeeze.

Thanks!

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>