From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932977AbXGTHfZ (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:35:25 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1757965AbXGTHfN (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:35:13 -0400 Received: from one.firstfloor.org ([213.235.205.2]:38466 "EHLO one.firstfloor.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757201AbXGTHfM (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:35:12 -0400 Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:35:09 +0200 From: Andi Kleen To: Uwe Hermann Cc: Matt Mackall , Andi Kleen , "H. Peter Anvin" , Jonathan Campbell , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels Message-ID: <20070720073509.GA19833@one.firstfloor.org> References: <469A8AED.7070207@nerdgrounds.com> <469E3806.4030804@zytor.com> <20070718194137.GG11166@waste.org> <20070718201043.GF3898@one.firstfloor.org> <20070718204102.GM11115@waste.org> <20070720072730.GN3700@greenwood> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070720072730.GN3700@greenwood> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Some people are putting Linux kernels in the "BIOS" (i.e. ROM chip) when > using LinuxBIOS (www.linuxbios.org). It _does_ make a lot of difference > there how big the kernel is. At the moment you can't do that with > anything smaller than a 1 MB chip. But if people could use 512 KB chips > because the kernel is small enough that would sure be a great thing. I'm sure it would be possibel to save a lot of text size. But I don't think removing the relatively small CPUID code is the right way. That is just a big maintenance issue for little gain. If you're seriously interested you should start measuring and then attack the real bloat pigs. e.g. a good way is to look for unneeded inlining. And also do regression testing, like running bloat-o-meter between releases and complaining about subsystems which have grown unduly. -Andi