From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: James Ketrenos Subject: Re: [PATCH 12/18] ipw2200: version string rework Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:31:42 -0500 Message-ID: <4443C2EE.6030302@linux.intel.com> References: <20060413092034.GA28787@mail.intel.com> <20060413102820.4fabf028@localhost.localdomain> 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 fmr20.intel.com ([134.134.136.19]:48086 "EHLO orsfmr005.jf.intel.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750779AbWDQQ3q (ORCPT ); Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:29:46 -0400 To: Stephen Hemminger In-Reply-To: <20060413102820.4fabf028@localhost.localdomain> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org 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