Re: RFC - size tool for kernel build system

[Robin Getz <rgetz@blackfin.uclinux.org>]

On Thu 9 Oct 2008 11:21, Adrian Bunk pondered:
> On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 02:19:36PM -0700, Tim Bird wrote:
> > I've been thinking about a tool that might be useful
> > to track kernel size changes.  I'm posting this
> > Request For Comments to get feedback, and determine
> > if this is something that would be worthwhile to
> > pursue.
> > 
> > What I envision is some new kernel build targets, specifically
> > related to gathering size information and generating a size
> > comparison report.  Some small helper scripts would be written
> > to gather the necessary information, and generate the report.
> >...
> > Any comments?
> 
> The building blocks that would be useful are IMHO:
> - a make target that generates a report for one kernel
>   (like the checkstack or export_report targets)

and the report includes sizes of more than just the text section? Which is my 
biggest pet peeve with bloat-o-meter today, since it uses nm, not readelf - 
and saving data is just as important as saving instruction.

> - a script that compares two such reports and outputs the
>   size differences
> 
> That's also easy to do, and if that's what's wanted I can send a patch 
> that does it.
> 
> Everything else is IMHO overdesigned.

I understand the desire though - make it easier to compare two setups.

capturing a make target into a file, (make size_report > config1.size) and 
running a compare on two outputs seems like a more "standard" way of doing 
things...