Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.
Simplifying the Config System
Jean Delvare from SUSE noticed that kernel config files were reaching upward of 6,000 lines and that the number of drivers and configurable options was continuing to expand explosively. He also noticed that the configuration system had some bugs, setting certain drivers to be compiled into the kernel, even if the hardware they supported was not present on the system. Recently, he suggested:
I would like to call for proper hardware dependencies to become a general trend: Every new hardware-specific driver which is added to the kernel should depend on ($hardware || COMPILE_TEST), so as to make it clear right away, which type of hardware is expected to need the driver in question.
$hardware can be the top-level architecture (e.g., ARM), but can also go down to sub-architecture/platform (e.g., ARCH_AT91 or PLATFORM_AT32AP) or even machine (e.g., PICOXCELL_PC3X3). The list can always be extended later if needed. Ideally we should restrict as much as possible as long as the result is easy to maintain, not too complex, and not likely to break in a near future.
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