A recent posting to the lkml announced that the Open-iSCSI and Linux-iSCSI projects have merged into a single effort. iSCSI stands for the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface, a transport protocol that works on top of TCP and allows the SCSI family of protocols to function over a network instead of only over a local bus. Regarding the recent merging of efforts, the announcement explains:

"After some dialog with the developers on each team, it was decided that although each team started out with independent code and some differences in architecture, it was worth considering the possibility of combining the two efforts into one. Alternatives were considered for the combined architecture of the two projects, including adding an option for a kernel control plane. After discussions, it was decided by consensus that the open-iscsi architecture and code would be the best starting point for the "next gen" linux-iscsi project.

"The advantages of this starting point include open-iscsi's optimized I/O paths that were built from scratch, as well as incorporation of well tested iscsi-sfnet components for the control plane and userspace components. The combined open-iscsi and linux-iscsi teams believe this will result in the highest performing and most stable iSCSI stack for Linux."

From: linux-iscsi development team [email blocked]
To:  linux-iscsi-devel, [email blocked], open-iscsi [email blocked],
 linux-scsi [email blocked], linux-kernel [email blocked],
 dm-devel [email blocked], iscsitarget-devel [email blocked]
Subject: [ANNOUNCE] open-iscsi and linux-iscsi project teams have merged!
Date: 	Mon, 11 Apr 2005 22:30:58 -0400

The linux-iscsi and open-iscsi developers would like to announce
that they have combined forces on a single iSCSI initiator effort!

This mail gives an overview of this combined effort and will be followed
by a set of iSCSI patches the combined team submits for review as a
candidate for inclusion into the mainline kernel.

Background

After some dialog with the developers on each team, it was decided
that although each team started out with independent code and some
differences in architecture, it was worth considering the possibility
of combining the two efforts into one.  Alternatives were considered
for the combined architecture of the two projects, including adding
an option for a kernel control plane.  After discussions, it was
decided by consensus that the open-iscsi architecture and code would
be the best starting point for the "next gen" linux-iscsi project.
The advantages of this starting point include open-iscsi's optimized
I/O paths that were built from scratch, as well as incorporation of
well tested iscsi-sfnet components for the control plane and userspace
components.  The combined open-iscsi and linux-iscsi teams believe
this will result in the highest performing and most stable iSCSI stack
for Linux.

Overview of Combined Project

This new combined effort will consist of the open-iscsi code and
developers moving over to the linux-iscsi project on sourceforge
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-iscsi/).  The open-iscsi
(http://www.open-iscsi.org) architecture will be the basis for
the "next gen" of linux-iscsi, which will be numbered the
linux-iscsi-5.x release series.

Release Numbering

If you were following the open-iscsi series, here is the mapping
between the open-iscsi numbering and the linux-iscsi-5.x numbering:
- open-iscsi-0.2 == linux-iscsi-5.0.0.2

Kernel Submission

The kernel component of the first release in this linux-iscsi 5.x
series will follow shortly, and the combined teams wish to submit
this as a candidate for inclusion into the mainline kernel.
If you've reviewed the previous open-iscsi patch set, you'll find
that this patchset is very similar, with previous reviewer comments
incorporated.

Thanks.

- The combined open-iscsi and linux-iscsi teams

• Archive of above thread