Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 04:32:06 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 04:32:06 -0500 Received: from caramon.arm.linux.org.uk ([212.18.232.186]:56332 "EHLO caramon.arm.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 04:32:05 -0500 Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 09:42:35 +0000 From: Russell King To: Chris Dukes Cc: Alan Cox , Jeff Garzik , Robin Holt , Linux Kernel Mailing List , netdev@oss.sgi.com Subject: Re: Make ipconfig.c work as a loadable module. Message-ID: <20030307094235.A11807@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Chris Dukes , Alan Cox , Jeff Garzik , Robin Holt , Linux Kernel Mailing List , netdev@oss.sgi.com References: <1046990052.18158.121.camel@irongate.swansea.linux.org.uk> <20030306221136.GB26732@gtf.org> <20030306222546.K838@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> <1046996037.18158.142.camel@irongate.swansea.linux.org.uk> <20030306231905.M838@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> <1046996987.17718.144.camel@irongate.swansea.linux.org.uk> <20030307000816.P838@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> <20030307012905.G20725@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <20030307012905.G20725@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk>; from pakrat@www.uk.linux.org on Fri, Mar 07, 2003 at 01:29:05AM +0000 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2457 Lines: 63 On Fri, Mar 07, 2003 at 01:29:05AM +0000, Chris Dukes wrote: > If IBM can fit a kernel and a ramdisk containing all the utilities you > describe and more in smaller than 5M of file for tftp, one would think > that it could be done on Linux. Wow. 5MB eh? We currently do NFS-root in 690K. > > ipconfig.c does more than just configure networking. It's a far smaller > > solution to NFS-root than any userspace implementation could ever hope > > to be. > > That's nice. Would you mind explaining to us where that would be a > benefit? Aside from dead header space in elf executables, I'm at > a loss as to how a usermode implementation must be significantly > larger than kernel code. If you're suggesting above that "5MB isn't significantly larger than the size Linux can do this" then I think I've just proven you wrong. Lets see - building an ramdisk to mount a root filesystem out of existing binaries would require from my exisitng systems probably something like: text data bss dec hex filename 1093047 21224 15560 1129831 113d67 /lib/libc.so.6 515890 22320 16640 554850 87762 /bin/sh 58540 2436 9776 70752 11460 /lib/libresolv.so.2 53685 1476 5488 60649 ece9 /bin/mount 45511 672 432 46615 b617 /bin/sed 42830 624 40 43494 a9e6 /sbin/pump 10783 500 104 11387 2c7b /lib/libtermcap.so.2 8765 444 28 9237 2415 /lib/libdl.so.2 pump isn't really suitable for the task, but I don't have dhcpcd around. dhcpcd is even larger than pump however. That's getting on for 2MB vs: 2620 2012 0 4632 1218 fs/nfs/nfsroot.o 8016 380 80 8476 211c net/ipv4/ipconfig.o about 13K. Which version is overly bloated? Which version is huge? Which version is compact? Even the klibc ipconfig version is significantly larger than the in-kernel version - and klibc and its binaries are written to be small. Note: I *do* agree that ipconfig.c needs to die before 2.6 but I do not agree that today is the right day. -- Russell King (rmk@arm.linux.org.uk) The developer of ARM Linux http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/personal/aboutme.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/