Re: About git-bisect (defconfigs)

Re: About git-bisect (defconfigs)

[Randy Dunlap]

Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 1:55 PM, Renato S. Yamane
> <yamane@diamondcut.com.br> wrote:
>> Francis Moreau wrote:
>>> Linus Torvalds writes:
>>>> It takes me 16 seconds to compile my kernel (if it's all cached), and
>>>> that's largely because I do _not_ compile one of the crazy distro kernels
>>>> with thousands of totally irrelevant modules for my setup.
>>> an other reason is perhaps you're using a computer that most common
>>> mortal don't have ;)
>>>
>>> Care to share your network configuration ;) ?
>> Maybe a repository with .config files used by linux hard-users (as most
>> developers here) can be very interesting to a lot of people get a starter.
>>
> 
> Or perhaps just to keep 'make defconfig' uptodate with sane core values
> which should fit a desktop config ?
> 
> BTW does anybody what the status of the defconfig files on x86 ?

I looked at them about 1 week ago.  I know that Ingo or the x86 maintainers
team update them occasionally, but I'd like to see a few changes or some
questions answered:

1.  Disable CONFIG_TR.  Token ring is antiquated.  No reason to be in defconfig.

2.  There are several security-related config items that default to =y but the
kconfig help says:  If unsure, say N here.  Like:


CONFIG_NETLABEL=y
CONFIG_NETWORK_SECMARK=y
CONFIG_KEYS=y
CONFIG_SECURITY=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_NETWORK=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX=y


Maybe I just don't understand the current meaning/usage of defconfig.  eh?


Thanks,
~Randy

Re: About git-bisect (defconfigs)

[Nick Andrew]

On Wed, Dec 03, 2008 at 09:50:51AM -0800, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 2.  There are several security-related config items that default to =y but the
> kconfig help says:  If unsure, say N here.  Like:
> 
> 
> CONFIG_NETLABEL=y
> CONFIG_NETWORK_SECMARK=y
> CONFIG_KEYS=y
> CONFIG_SECURITY=y
> CONFIG_SECURITY_NETWORK=y
> CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX=y
> 
> Maybe I just don't understand the current meaning/usage of defconfig.  eh?

A consistent approach to the Kconfig hints would help. To me,
"If unsure, say N" implies that turning off the feature won't break
the kernel nor be anything particularly important. The Kconfig hints
should follow the defaults (or else why default to 'y'?) for common
architectures.

Perhaps menuconfig can generate the "If unsure" message itself from
the architecture defaults? That will ensure consistency.

Nick.