* Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts @ 2026-10-04 18:26 Aharon Robbins 2026-10-05 8:53 ` Nathan Chancellor 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Aharon Robbins @ 2026-10-04 18:26 UTC (permalink / raw) To: linux-kbuild Hi All I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build scripts in combination with objdump. In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed entirely. So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good time to remove its use from the kernel build. Please reply privately, as I'm not on the linux-kbuild list. Much thanks, Arnold Robbins ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts 2026-10-04 18:26 Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts Aharon Robbins @ 2026-10-05 8:53 ` Nathan Chancellor 2026-10-05 9:02 ` arnold 2026-10-13 9:19 ` Peter Zijlstra 0 siblings, 2 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Nathan Chancellor @ 2026-10-05 8:53 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Aharon Robbins; +Cc: linux-kbuild, Josh Poimboeuf, Peter Zijlstra Hi Aharon, On Sun, Oct 04, 2026 at 09:26:58PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote: > I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build > scripts in combination with objdump. For the record, the only place where I see '-M' used with gawk is in scripts/objdump-func, which is not called during the kernel build thankfully. > In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which > uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond > the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). > > I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I > ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release > (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, > and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed > entirely. > > So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good > time to remove its use from the kernel build. Adding Josh and Peter for the rest of this since they have added/supported this script. -- Cheers, Nathan ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts 2026-10-05 8:53 ` Nathan Chancellor @ 2026-10-05 9:02 ` arnold 2026-10-08 7:29 ` arnold 2026-10-13 9:19 ` Peter Zijlstra 1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: arnold @ 2026-10-05 9:02 UTC (permalink / raw) To: nathan, arnold; +Cc: peterz, linux-kbuild, jpoimboe Hi Nathan. Thanks for the note. gawk -M is also used in a file named check.c (I didn't save the full path, sorry), which has the objdump-func script embedded in it for calling via system(3). Josh and Peter, looking forward to hearing more. Thanks, Arnold Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org> wrote: > Hi Aharon, > > On Sun, Oct 04, 2026 at 09:26:58PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote: > > I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build > > scripts in combination with objdump. > > For the record, the only place where I see '-M' used with gawk is in > scripts/objdump-func, which is not called during the kernel build > thankfully. > > > In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which > > uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond > > the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). > > > > I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I > > ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release > > (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, > > and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed > > entirely. > > > > So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good > > time to remove its use from the kernel build. > > Adding Josh and Peter for the rest of this since they have > added/supported this script. > > -- > Cheers, > Nathan ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts 2026-10-05 9:02 ` arnold @ 2026-10-08 7:29 ` arnold 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: arnold @ 2026-10-08 7:29 UTC (permalink / raw) To: nathan, arnold; +Cc: peterz, linux-kbuild, jpoimboe Josh, Peter, Anything to add? Thanks, Arnold arnold@skeeve.com wrote: > Hi Nathan. > > Thanks for the note. gawk -M is also used in a file named check.c (I didn't > save the full path, sorry), which has the objdump-func script embedded > in it for calling via system(3). > > Josh and Peter, looking forward to hearing more. > > Thanks, > > Arnold > > Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org> wrote: > > > Hi Aharon, > > > > On Sun, Oct 04, 2026 at 09:26:58PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote: > > > I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build > > > scripts in combination with objdump. > > > > For the record, the only place where I see '-M' used with gawk is in > > scripts/objdump-func, which is not called during the kernel build > > thankfully. > > > > > In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which > > > uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond > > > the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). > > > > > > I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I > > > ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release > > > (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, > > > and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed > > > entirely. > > > > > > So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good > > > time to remove its use from the kernel build. > > > > Adding Josh and Peter for the rest of this since they have > > added/supported this script. > > > > -- > > Cheers, > > Nathan ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts 2026-10-05 8:53 ` Nathan Chancellor 2026-10-05 9:02 ` arnold @ 2026-10-13 9:19 ` Peter Zijlstra 2026-10-13 14:41 ` arnold 1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Peter Zijlstra @ 2026-10-13 9:19 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Nathan Chancellor; +Cc: Aharon Robbins, linux-kbuild, Josh Poimboeuf On Mon, Oct 05, 2026 at 10:53:32AM +0200, Nathan Chancellor wrote: > Hi Aharon, > > On Sun, Oct 04, 2026 at 09:26:58PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote: > > I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build > > scripts in combination with objdump. > > For the record, the only place where I see '-M' used with gawk is in > scripts/objdump-func, which is not called during the kernel build > thankfully. > > > In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which > > uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond > > the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). > > > > I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I > > ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release > > (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, > > and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed > > entirely. > > > > So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good > > time to remove its use from the kernel build. > > Adding Josh and Peter for the rest of this since they have > added/supported this script. I'm not sure; Josh added that when he did the upstream version. My initial version very much does not have that -M on. Josh? ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts 2026-10-13 9:19 ` Peter Zijlstra @ 2026-10-13 14:41 ` arnold 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: arnold @ 2026-10-13 14:41 UTC (permalink / raw) To: peterz, nathan; +Cc: linux-kbuild, jpoimboe, arnold Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 05, 2026 at 10:53:32AM +0200, Nathan Chancellor wrote: > > Hi Aharon, > > > > On Sun, Oct 04, 2026 at 09:26:58PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote: > > > I'm the maintainer for gawk. I see that it's used in the kernel build > > > scripts in combination with objdump. > > > > For the record, the only place where I see '-M' used with gawk is in > > scripts/objdump-func, which is not called during the kernel build > > thankfully. > > > > > In particular, I note that gawk is invoked with the -M option, which > > > uses MPFR for arithmetic (although the precision isn't changed beyond > > > the default which is the same as for IEEE hardware floating point). > > > > > > I am wondering if the -M option is really needed here? The reason I > > > ask is that I plan to deprecate MPFR support. The upcoming 6.0 release > > > (I hope in Q2 2027) will issue a deprecation warning when -M is used, > > > and 6.1 (late 2027 or early 2028, I hope) will have MPFR support removed > > > entirely. > > > > > > So, I wanted to give you folks a heads-up. If -M isn't needed, now's a good > > > time to remove its use from the kernel build. > > > > Adding Josh and Peter for the rest of this since they have > > added/supported this script. > > I'm not sure; Josh added that when he did the upstream version. My > initial version very much does not have that -M on. Josh? Thanks Peter. Josh, looking forward to hearing from you. Arnold ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2026-10-13 14:41 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2026-10-04 18:26 Use of `gawk -M' in kernel build scripts Aharon Robbins 2026-10-05 8:53 ` Nathan Chancellor 2026-10-05 9:02 ` arnold 2026-10-08 7:29 ` arnold 2026-10-13 9:19 ` Peter Zijlstra 2026-10-13 14:41 ` arnold
This is an external index of several public inboxes, see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror all data and code used by this external index.