Re: Ingo, no more kconfig patches

Adrian Bunk
2008-05-03T20:25:32Z

On Sat, May 03, 2008 at 09:14:45PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>
> * Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 04:52:34AM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > >
> > > * Adrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > > I would really appreciate it if you could send the error message
> > > > and the .config but not quick kconfig patches that are often wrong
> > > > and that you try to push through the maintainers as you tried
> > > > here.
> > >
> > > hey, sorry about invading your turf of trivial patches ;) I dont see
> > > it as a problem that the thought process and the initial patch is
> > > incomplete and ad-hoc. My preference is to work with people out in
> > > the open, even on trivial issues. Dmitry is a capable maintainer who
> > > understands his code very well and he'll resist me if i'm full of
> > > it. Just like i resisted you when you were full of it. That's what
> > > maintainers do, their job is to know their code.
> > >
> > > And, occasionally, as in this case, i might end up being faced with
> > > a bug in the code i maintain ;)
> >
> > You completely miss my point.
> >
> > You wrongly (and loudly) blamed Dmitry for something you broke
> > yourself.
>
> i didnt. Read what i wrote:
>
> || no, you are wrong, read the current Kconfig rules again. If the user
> || can create a .config that does not build, it is driver breakage. It
> || always was, and has been in the past 15 years.
> ||
> || Kconfig might be extended to make dependencies easier to manage for
> || developers but until that is implemented you have to craft your
> || driver's dependencies with the current tools in a way that doesnt
> || break the build.
>
> and that's exactly what happens with Roman's patch: a Kconfig subsystem
> design bug (its inability to properly propagate the dependencies of
> select's) is worked around in the driver space: by the LEDS_CORE driver
> config introduction and no user-visible.
>
> Roman's patch is obviously cleaner than my hack (i just fixed a single
> instantiation of the problem, while he changed the LEDS driver
> dependency structure), but it's still a workaround for a Kconfig
> subsystem bug and the same problem could reoccur elsewhere. It could hit
> anytime dual dependencies are introduced in a driver accidentally.

Ingo, perhaps it helps if I put it in caps:

YOU TRIED TO PUSH AN INPUT PATCH FOR AN X86 BUG.

Roman's patch is better than adding a select, but your patch would have
added the select in the completely wrong subsystem.

Why can't you admit the patch you tried to push was wrong?

> As Sam said it, fixing that Kconfig design bug would be "nice" - but
> unfortunately the Kconfig subsystem is not actively developed anymore.

Roman is still active.

> Would you like to volunteer for that? It would be a _very_ useful
> contribution. One such fix could avoid hundreds or even thousands of
> trivial problems in the future - it could avoid having to make hundreds
> or thousands of trivial patches in the future.

Different to you I actually have some basic understanding how kconfig
works.

I'm not even sure the semantics of "select follows dependencies"
would actually be better than what we have today.

> Ingo

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed