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Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 10:53:24 -0800 (PST)
From: "Randy.Dunlap" <rddunlap@osdl.org>
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To: John Bradford <john@grabjohn.com>
cc: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>, <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] fix os release detection in module-init-tools-0.9.6
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On Wed, 1 Jan 2003, John Bradford wrote:

| > > | Um, you read the .config, which hopefully is stored somewhere.
| > > | (Although you could resurrect the /proc/config patch which goes around
| > > | every so often).  There are many things you can't tell by reading
| > > | /proc/ksyms.
| > >
| > > Right, the .config file is the answer.  And there are at least 2
| > > patch solutions for it, the /proc/config that Rusty mentioned, or
| > > the in-kernel config that Khalid Aziz and others from HP did along
| > > with me, and it's in 2.4.recent-ac or 2.5.recent-dcl or 2.5.recent-cgl.
| >
| > It would be useful to have a few global options perhaps included in /proc
| > (or wherever) on all kernels. By global I mean those which affect the
| > entire kernel, like preempt or smp, rather than driver options. We already
| > note 'tainted,' so this is not a totally new idea. It would seem that most
| > of the processor options could fall in this class, MCE, IOAPIC, etc.
| >
| > If the aim is to speed stability, putting any of the "whole config"
| > options in and defaulted on might be a step toward that.
|
| Having all of the config options in a /proc/config file would be a
| great help for people using my new bug database, because it would
| allow them to upload the .config for their current kernel even if it
| is not one they have compiled themselves.

It seems that we still differ that putting them in /proc
is required.  I don't see a hard requirement for that as long
as the vmlinu[xz] or bzImage etc. file contains the config
strings, which is what the other mentioned patch does.

They are still affixed to a particular file, and they can be
pulled from it whether it's the running kernel or not.
Putting them in /proc wastes RAM and is undesirable, at least
on small systems and most embedded platforms.
However, that patch does also contain an option for putting
the config entries in /proc.  :)

| At the moment, the facility to search for bugs via the config options
| that cause them is only useful for people who are compiling their own
| kernel.

-- 
~Randy

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