Re: [RFC][PATCH] New message-logging API (kprint)

[Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>]

On Thursday 04 October 2007 3:17:03 pm Randy Dunlap wrote:
> On Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:04:07 +0200 Vegard Nossum wrote:
> > Description: This patch largely implements the kprint API as previously
> > posted to the LKML and described in Documentation/kprint.txt (see patch).
> >
> > The main purpose of this change is provide a unified logging API to the
> > kernel and at the same time make it easy to add extensions, now and
> > later.
> >
> > My changes and additions are as follows:
>
> $ diffstat -p1 -w70 kprint.patch
...
>  40 files changed, 1660 insertions(+), 72 deletions(-)

I started this thread by posting an idea I had for shrinking the kernel by 
allowing more code to be configured out.  The API change was exactly one new 
parameter, with a direct 1->1 mapping from the old API to the new one, which 
was trivial to convert and which the compiler would catch if you missed one.

The result of the discussion is a patch adding 1600 lines to the kernel, 
without removing anything.

Last I checked, the current prink() worked just fine.  Why is this _not_ the 
dreaded "infrastructure in search of a use"?  What exactly can we _not_ do 
with the current code?  What does this allow us to remove and simplify?

I'm confused about what people are trying to accomplish here...

Rob
-- 
"One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code."
  - Ken Thompson.