It seems that there are a few things that could be done
to enhance kernel configuration scripts:
* most importantly, put SMP back into configuration, instead of the Makefile.
It seems that the motivation for that was that too many files depend on
__SMP__ but that current .depend can't see it.
Wouldn't it be just a matter of defining __SMP__ in a config_smp.h?
Or just trigger a "make clean" when CONFIG_SMP has changed?
* It would be nice for some script to tell the user which are the new flags
that appeared since he last configurated the kernel (which might be
several releases away, so that just telling him "read the patches" is no
fair game); hence, no need to go through all the make *config if no new
(interesting) option was made available -- just recompile.
During interactive reconfiguration, (menuconfig, xconfig),
options and option categories that contain previously undefined options
could be flagged as such.
* the module installation is not obvious and not very helpful to people
compiling for another machine: it would be nice for the makefile
(perhaps calling auxiliary scripts when they exist) to put modules in
subdirectories block/ net/ etc, so that it's easier to tar the whole
kernel+modules+whatever and transport them to their final destination
(also useful when cross-compiling).
So my questions are: which suggested features are or not desirable?
what are the caveats? what "kind" of interface would be nice for those
features? are there any remarks about how to code them? Is anyone
actively in charge for the considered modifications? Is it worth
writing these patches, or would they just be ignored?
[I'm asking the latter out of my experience with byteorder+ufs patches].
PS: is anyone in charge of porting UMSDOS or UVFAT to 2.1?
Will the VFS layer change yet again? Are there any porting notes
between the two VFS layers?
== Faré -=- (FR) François-René Rideau -=- (VN) Уng-Vû Bân -=- rideau@ens.fr ==
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