why no Kconfig in "kernel" subdir?

why no Kconfig in "kernel" subdir?

[Chris Friesen]

I was adding a new general syscall the other day, and it struck me as 
odd that there is no Kconfig in the "kernel" subdirectory.

A quick search shows 36 separate config options being used in that 
subdirectory (stuff like PREEMPT, SMP, FUTEX, HOTPLUG, SYSCTL, etc). 
Why is there no Kconfig for it?  As it stands, all of these have to be 
copied and pasted in every single arch.  This seems odd.

Would people be open to a series of patches that create a new Kconfig 
and start moving generic stuff to it?  Or are these things really 
arch-specific enough to warrent massive duplication?

Chris

-- 
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Nortel Networks                  | work: (613) 765-0557
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Re: why no Kconfig in "kernel" subdir?

[Randy.Dunlap]

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:05:17 -0500 Chris Friesen <cfriesen@nortelnetworks.com> wrote:

| I was adding a new general syscall the other day, and it struck me as 
| odd that there is no Kconfig in the "kernel" subdirectory.
| 
| A quick search shows 36 separate config options being used in that 
| subdirectory (stuff like PREEMPT, SMP, FUTEX, HOTPLUG, SYSCTL, etc). 
| Why is there no Kconfig for it?  As it stands, all of these have to be 
| copied and pasted in every single arch.  This seems odd.

In several cases I expect that you are correct.
In some cases, general config options are now going into init/Kconfig.

| Would people be open to a series of patches that create a new Kconfig 
| and start moving generic stuff to it?  Or are these things really 
| arch-specific enough to warrent massive duplication?

I consider PREEMPT and SMP arch-specific, not generic.

Will init/Kconfig do what you want?

--
~Randy
MOTD:  Always include version info.

Re: why no Kconfig in "kernel" subdir?

[Chris Friesen]

Randy.Dunlap wrote:


> I consider PREEMPT and SMP arch-specific, not generic.

Interesting.  Might I ask why?  I thought that most of PREEMPT was 
pretty arch-neutral.

> Will init/Kconfig do what you want?

As long as there is some place to put generic options that are 
applicable to the system as a whole, then I'm happy.

Chris



-- 
Chris Friesen                    | MailStop: 043/33/F10
Nortel Networks                  | work: (613) 765-0557
3500 Carling Avenue              | fax:  (613) 765-2986
Nepean, ON K2H 8E9 Canada        | email: cfriesen@nortelnetworks.com

Re: why no Kconfig in "kernel" subdir?

[Randy.Dunlap]

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 16:34:26 -0500 Chris Friesen <cfriesen@nortelnetworks.com> wrote:

| Randy.Dunlap wrote:
| 
| 
| > I consider PREEMPT and SMP arch-specific, not generic.
| 
| Interesting.  Might I ask why?  I thought that most of PREEMPT was 
| pretty arch-neutral.

Right, most of it is arch-neutral.
It appears that PA-RISC doesn't support PREEMPT:

include/asm-parisc/hardirq.h:
#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT
# error CONFIG_PREEMT currently not supported.
  [complete with typo]

and UML doesn't support PREEMPT either.


| > Will init/Kconfig do what you want?
| 
| As long as there is some place to put generic options that are 
| applicable to the system as a whole, then I'm happy.

I expect that it's workable.

--
~Randy
MOTD:  Always include version info.