Re: [PATCH] net/, drivers/net/ , missing EXPERIMENTAL in menus

Adrian Bunk
2007-07-19T05:48:33Z

On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 05:18:20PM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Adrian Bunk wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 04:51:33PM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > >
> > > > Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:23:09 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > > > > > there's no point adding all that redundant content when it can all be
> > > > > > done automatically.
> > > > >
> > > > > I like it. Are there any kconfig patches to support this plan?
> > > >
> > > > Speaking specifically to adding 'EXPERIMENTAL', I distinctly
> > > > remember at some point in the past the config system was smart
> > > > enough to print " (EXPERIMENTAL)" if that entry depended on
> > > > CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL.
> > > >
> > > > We should head in that direction.
> > >
> > > there's one point i want to re-iterate. i'd prefer to see
> > > EXPERIMENTAL stop being a dependency, as in:
> > >
> > > depends on SNAFU && FUBAR && EXPERIMENTAL
> > >
> > > "EXPERIMENTAL" is not a dependency in the true sense of the word
> > > -- it is more of an attribute, and i think it would far more sense
> > > to see entries like:
> > >
> > > depends on SNAFU && FUBAR
> > > maturity EXPERIMENTAL
> >
> > Plus some special case in the kconfig code that you can somewhere
> > select the maturity levels you want to use (currently it's a normal
> > option kconfig doesn't have to know anything about).
>
> i already described that here:
>
> http://readlist.com/lists/vger.kernel.org/linux-kernel/66/334172.html
>
> where the top-level config would look something like:
>
> [*] Activate maturity attributes
> [*] EXPERIMENTAL
> [*] DEPRECATED
> [*] OBSOLETE
> [*] BROKEN

We already made the mistake of offering BROKEN as an option in the past,
and the result was that people enabled it instead of reporting that a
dependency on BROKEN was wrong.

> whereupon you could select any combination of the attributes you want
> displayed *beyond the regular ones* during the config process.
>
> > Remind me, would there be any big advantage after such a change
> > besides being able to automatically print " (EXPERIMENTAL)" at the
> > end of the prompt?
>
> defining a new Kconfig attribute means you can process it differently
> from regular dependencies. and if it's added as a general feature, it
> can be used for other possible attributes beyond just a maturity
> level.
>
> if you leave these maturity levels as regular dependencies, you're
> going to have to brute force and manually process them, and why make
> it that ugly?

I would consider it more ugly to special case this and that in the
kconfig code when plain dependencies already offer exactly the same
functionality...

> rday

cu
Adrian

--

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