Re: [PATCH] config: Add 'make kvmconfig'

Sasha Levin
2011-10-28T07:23:59Z

On Fri, 2011-10-28 at 09:03 +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> * Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 02:07:14PM +0200, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > > This patch adds 'make kvmconfig' which allows to add KVM guest support
> > > to a config file.
> > >
> > > This allows for easier testing of configurations under virtualized
> > > environments.
> > >
> > > Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
> > > Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
> > > Cc: Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>
> > > Cc: Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi>
> > > Cc: linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org
> > > Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> > > Suggested-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
> > > Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <levinsasha928@gmail.com>
> >
> > Two points about the implmentation that I do not like...
> >
> > The kvmconfig is an x86 specific thing - so it does not belong
> > in the scripts/kconfig/Makefile
> >
> > The *config namespace is general config targets.
> >
> > Suggestion:
> > Move the implmentation to arch/x86/Makefile and name the target
> > something that does not match the *config pattern.
> >
> > Suggestion:
> >
> > make kvmbootable
> >
> > To tell that this convert the current config to a kvmbootable config.
> >
> > And then add the target to the x86 specific help too.
>
> KVM itself is not x86 specific (although this patch obviously is), so
> we'd like to keep at least the naming non-x86.
>
> Furthermore, the functionality generally fits into the pattern that
> 'oldconfig' does: it changes an existing config - so having 'config'
> in the name somewhere makes quite a bit of sense. If i didn't know
> what 'kvmbootable' does i couldnt guess that it touches the .config -
> while the *config pattern makes that patently obvious.
>
> Could we set aside some sort of name for such subsystem specific
> purposes and be done with it? Could we reuse the 'defconfig'
> naming perhaps and make it richer:
>
> make defconfig kvm
>
> or:
>
> make defconfig-kvm
>
> ? It would be very obvious at a glance what it does.

We can possibly make 'make defconfig abc' run arch specific script
located next to the defconfig files (arch/$(ARCH)/configs/).

It would both solve the problem with being arch specific, and would
allow for future expansion of other 'kvm defconfig' options.

--

Sasha.