Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030210AbWEZAMs (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 May 2006 20:12:48 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030212AbWEZAMs (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 May 2006 20:12:48 -0400 Received: from gw.openss7.com ([142.179.199.224]:61325 "EHLO gw.openss7.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1030210AbWEZAMr (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 May 2006 20:12:47 -0400 Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 18:12:45 -0600 From: "Brian F. G. Bidulock" To: 4Front Technologies Cc: Jesper Juhl , Lee Revell , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: How to check if kernel sources are installed on a system? Message-ID: <20060525181245.A3859@openss7.org> Reply-To: bidulock@openss7.org Mail-Followup-To: 4Front Technologies , Jesper Juhl , Lee Revell , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <1148596163.31038.30.camel@mindpipe> <4476321A.8090508@opensound.com> <9a8748490605251606q256d7e67s8b8220eae05a5422@mail.gmail.com> <44763AE0.6050907@opensound.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <44763AE0.6050907@opensound.com>; from dev@opensound.com on Thu, May 25, 2006 at 04:16:48PM -0700 Organization: http://www.openss7.org/ Dsn-Notification-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4339 Lines: 110 Dev, It appears that you might be fairly new to the game of maintaining open source kernel modules outside of mainline. Having worked for a number of years providing STREAMS distributions outside of mainline and that need to be compatible with a wide range of distributions, I spent some amount of time developing a GNU autoconf/automake based approach that works with most major distributions. Even though Linux Fast-STREAMS has proven that STREAMS-based pipes can outperform Linux SVR 3.2 based pipes under FC4 (see http://www.openss7.org/streams_perf.html ), and current UDP tests show that STREAMS easily rivals a sockets-based approach, strong dogmatic opinions against STREAMS keeps it from being accepted in the mainline (see http://www.tux.org/#s9-9 ). You seem to be in a similar circumstance. What the autoconf macros developed as part of the OpenSS7 Project do are as follows: - identifies the distribution - identifies the running or target kernel - locates configured sources appropriate for build - identifies other LSB related issues such as init scripts - builds source and binary RPM packages and source and binary Debian packages Several common issues with building outside the kernel tree on production distributions addressed are as follows: - provides access to non-exported symbols (note that OpenSS7 is released under GPLv2 so there are no issues for OpenSS7 packages). - provides methods for performing all autoconf tests against kernel headers or source. Often for production distributions testing kernel version is not sufficient because kernels have been hacked by the distributor: this provides a means to test the actual kernel rather than basing tests on kernel versions. - extracts compilation flags from kernel Makefiles and works with both 2.4 and 2.6 kernel series, as well as distribution-hacked makefiles. - by identifying the distribution, locates kernel sources and configuration files in a distribution dependent fashion. - suitable for use with RPM spec files and Debian build scripts. If you would like to take a look, download the streams-0.7a.4.tar.bz2 from http://www.openss7.org/download.html and take a look at the autoconf macros in the m4 subdirectory, the automake makefile fragments in the am subdirectory, scripts in the scripts subdirectory, acinclude.m4, the streams.spec.in RPM spec file, and the debian subdirectory. If there is sufficient interest, I would entertain separately maintaining the autoconf/automake fragments. --brian On Thu, 25 May 2006, 4Front Technologies wrote: > Jesper Juhl wrote: > > On 26/05/06, 4Front Technologies wrote: > >> > >> Anything to get out-of-kernel modules compiling without jumping > >> through 1000 > >> hoops is good. > >> > > > > hmm, I'd say that anything that encourages people to merge their code > > with mainline instead of maintaining out-of-tree modules is good. > > > > > Honestly, if I put Open Sound drivers under GPL would Linus really merge my code > back into the kernel?. Be honest! > > > If you aren't going to maintain OSS, then give me a way to support my product!. > > > > > > best regards > > Dev Mazumdar > ----------------------------------------------------------- > 4Front Technologies > 4035 Lafayette Place, Unit F, Culver City, CA 90232, USA. > Tel: (310) 202 8530 URL: www.opensound.com > Fax: (310) 202 0496 Email: info@opensound.com > ----------------------------------------------------------- > - > 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/ -- Brian F. G. Bidulock ? The reasonable man adapts himself to the ? bidulock@openss7.org ? world; the unreasonable one persists in ? http://www.openss7.org/ ? trying to adapt the world to himself. ? ? Therefore all progress depends on the ? ? unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw ? - 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/