Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kABI Policy

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Issue

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 kABI stablelist is empty
  • Does kABI extend between minor releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9?

Resolution

The kernel Application Binary Interface (ABI) is now unique to each minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. Red Hat guarantees that a kernel module will continue to load in all future updates within an Extended Update Support (EUS) release, only if you compile the kernel module using protected kernel symbols.

Root Cause

As the number of kernel modules that would exclusively use symbols from the kABI stablelist is very small, it was decided that this policy change regarding the kABI stablelist from previous version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux would have a limited impact. Previously, the kABI stablelist was valid across all minor releases.

Diagnostic Steps

Check the contents of the kABI stablelist:

# cat /lib/modules/kabi-rhel90/kabi_stablelist_x86_64 
[rhel9_x86_64_stablelist]

This solution is part of Red Hat’s fast-track publication program, providing a huge library of solutions that Red Hat engineers have created while supporting our customers. To give you the knowledge you need the instant it becomes available, these articles may be presented in a raw and unedited form.

Comments