Re: [IDEA] Developers: your opinion badly needed ! (Was: [PATCH] /proc/config.gz)

Vinod G. Kulkarni (vinod@pspl.co.in)
Mon, 1 Jun 1998 06:30:10 +0000


On Mon, Jun 01, 1998 at 03:04:05PM +1000, Kevin Lentin wrote:

> > 1) make zImage (make bzImage)
> > 2) cat System.map >> zImage (bzImage)
> > 3) boot the new image
> > 4) cat /proc/ksyms_internal will open the zImage (bzImage) file, read the
> > data at the end of image and show it.
> >
> > - Data is NOT linked into the kernel (~ 130 Kb of data), so NO kernel
> > bloat, except of course for the /proc code.

It seems to me that there are couple of things which can be appended to kernel
in this manner:
1. Config file
2. System.map
3. Selected set of modules.
4. Minimal root image (Quick aid in case there is file system failure)
5. Any other user-required features

We will then require a generalised mechanism to append data to kernel image
and identify them with a set of tools. (.gz format will itself be ok, since
it can recognise independent files.) However a better mechanism with a
standardised interface to extract a particular component will be better.

If required, these can be part of /proc filesystem. (Or, how about a new
readonly filesystem? :-) In any case, we require a set of tools to
add/remove/list the set of appended objects in offline manner.

This is something I have always wanted. Very useful for everyone who have to
experiment with variety of kernels.

Vinod

--
Vinod G. Kulkarni                        Res: 10-D/14, Siddharth Nagar Stage 2
Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd.                  Near Octroi Naka, Aundh
vinod@pspl.co.in Ph. 0212-351510              PUNE, INDIA
Ph.D. Student at Dept. Of CSE, IIT Bombay.(vinod@cse.iitb.ernet.in)
"It is hard to accept miracles. Unless everything is a miracle."

- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu