Re: [kvm-ppc-devel] Top level kvm-userspace directory getting crowded ... need new dir for qemu dependencies

[Hollis Blanchard <hollisb@us.ibm.com>]

On Wed, 2008-02-27 at 22:20 +0100, Alexander Graf wrote:
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 9:22 PM, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
> >
> > So again, we the potential users are qemu and dtc.
> 
> Just while reading this I thought "Hey cool, dtc is packaged in most  
> distributions anyway. So why not modify dtc to provide the library, so  
> we have a common code base and make it a build dependency?"

That's a strange assertion, considering that Debian (and thus Ubuntu)
doesn't have it.

> > There is no need to equate "copy" with "fork". We will not be  
> > modifying this code, so there is no fork.
> 
> Cool! No need to provide a copy of it then, as we can use the  
> 'upstream' one.

I'm aware that we *could* use an upstream version of libfdt, if
everybody packaged and distributed it. However, they don't, I'm not
going to create and maintain those packages, and apparently you're not
volunteering either. So what "upsteam" could we use if we wanted to?

> >> This is a question of taste though and I don't want to have this
> >> ending as a flame war. So please just ask the other users if they  
> >> like
> >> the idea. As I lack real knowledge of device trees and PPC specifics,
> >> I wouldn't make a good moderator.
> >
> > The one piece of feedback I've gotten is (verbatim): "Unless they  
> > have a
> > really good reason why, I think it's pointless."
> >
> > I agree, this is a ridiculous thing to be arguing over, and I expected
> > to spend my day actually being productive. Maybe the problem here is
> > really the abbreviation "lib" in the name. How about I just call it
> > "fdt"?
> 
> I'm sorry. In the end it's more or less your decision anyway.

Is it? If so, I think I've made my decision clear...

> If you  
> plan to make frequent changes to the code (aka fork), include it in  
> kvm. If you are only planning on using code already available without  
> changes (aka copy), please change dtc to make the functionality that  
> exists available to kvm (e.g. a dot a file).
> 
> This mostly seems to be Avi's opinion as well as far as I understood it.

Have you actually looked at the code in question, or just saw that it
has "lib" in the name?

It's 1600 lines of C. In contrast, zlib, which is used in a large number
of projects, and despite that is often statically linked, is 8500.

-- 
Hollis Blanchard
IBM Linux Technology Center


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