I have a question regarding 16.04 Ubuntu Kernel ABI compatibility. I recently ran into an issue while using "get_user_pages_locked" API. I have an out-of-tree kernel module integrated with DKMS which uses this API and was working fine on 16.04.0/1, however when I switched to 16.04.2 (desktop ISO, kernel version 4.8), I found that API signatures were changed and I had to fix that manually in the production environment.

My question is If I stick to server 16.04.0/1 GA kernel version and never explicitly opt for HWE kernel, would Ubuntu ensure that all patch releases on GA kernel don't break the existing API surface? I understand that new APIs might be added, but I am more concerned about existing APIs being used by my module.

http://elixir.free-electrons.com/lin...i_nonsense.txt
No internal API guarantees are made between any versions of the kernel. I doubt any distro changes that.