From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Stephen Hemminger Subject: Re: [PATCH 12/18] ipw2200: version string rework Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 09:37:45 -0700 Message-ID: <20060417093745.6e76b957@localhost.localdomain> References: <20060413092034.GA28787@mail.intel.com> <20060413102820.4fabf028@localhost.localdomain> <4443C2EE.6030302@linux.intel.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: yi.zhu@intel.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org, "John W. Linville" Return-path: Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.4]:18632 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751141AbWDQQht (ORCPT ); Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:37:49 -0400 To: James Ketrenos In-Reply-To: <4443C2EE.6030302@linux.intel.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:31:42 -0500 James Ketrenos wrote: > Stephen Hemminger wrote: > > On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:20:34 +0800 > > Zhu Yi wrote: > > > > > >>Added version string fields so the version string indicates what is > >>configured (ie, you'll see 1.1.1kpmd if you are using a GIT snapshot > >>(Kernel.. previously -git), promiscuous (p), monitor (m), debug (d) build. > > > > > > No, this is completely the wrong direction. > > > > Stop with the config option nonsense. It makes it impossible for linux distributions > > and others that want to ship one kernel and modules. > > How does it make it impossible for someone to ship one kernel? > > There are are various configuration options to enable, some of which are > experimental and/or unstable, some add code and/or impact performance > when enabled, etc. Not all users want all features. > > Easily determining what is enabled in the driver is a requirement. > > The distributors should default to not enabling any feature that does > not default to =y or =m in Kconfig. In the default configuration, there > shouldn't be any post-fix fields appended to the version string. If > there is, we need to either fix the version string or the default > Kconfig setting. > > Is there an alternative method for quickly and easily determining what > all features are enabled in a module--even if the module isn't loaded? > We didn't see one, and using the fields post-fixed to the version string > has quickly resolved various support issues. > > Thanks, > James The version string is good idea, it is just the NxM complexity of possibilities that gets nasty. Also, is this a permanent fixture of these drivers, or just some transitional stage as new features get added that aren't stable yet?