Re: kbuild update

From: Robert P. J. Day
Date: Sun Sep 16 2007 - 11:24:21 EST


On Sun, 16 Sep 2007, Sam Ravnborg wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 16, 2007 at 08:58:03AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > On Sun, 16 Sep 2007, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
> >
> > > A summary of what is planned to be submitted in next merge window for kbuild.
> > > The shortlog below have additional details but the headlines are:
> > ...
> > > o add script to find unused kconfig symbols (try it!)
> >
> > based on my experiences with this, unless you filter carefully, you're
> > going to end up with a *whack* of false positives given the number of
> > developers who elect to name their local macros starting with a prefix
> > of "CONFIG_". good luck dealing with *that*. :-)

> This is useful for specific people but not for kernel janitorial
> fodder. As you already experience the amount of false positive are
> too high.
>
> But for a developer of a module it is no deal to ignore the false
> positives.
>
> It is for godd reasons not integrated in the build process.

right, i agree completely. if it were absolutely reliable in
generating *only* actual unused symbols, then that *might* (i stress,
*might*) be a viable argument for making it part of the Kbuild system.

but, really, if you can whip off a script that does most of the job in
a few minutes, there's really no motivation to then spend hours trying
to nail those last few harmless bits of irrelevant output.

rday
--
========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

http://crashcourse.ca
========================================================================
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