Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S966829AbXEGUt7 (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 May 2007 16:49:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S966818AbXEGUt4 (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 May 2007 16:49:56 -0400 Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.184.237]:5716 "EHLO wr-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S966581AbXEGUty (ORCPT ); Mon, 7 May 2007 16:49:54 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=oG4dITAIqeKhmd9cGhRkeZZ6B8m5lZg5bLgStcUrCpAwA6SSq1s0krIWrP5MdENzYpZN1Zd9ugm4hJilCc9vA9Vfqa54enBT8T45RxchQYGbwSGl6umOiSWhgd6XU8qb1AXs9HZq9d18x9dRba+uc7uGQA5/kcGQbEQ+eO2KBXM= Message-ID: Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 02:19:53 +0530 From: "Satyam Sharma" To: "Jeff Garzik" Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3] WAN Kconfig: change "depends on HDLC" to "select" Cc: "Roman Zippel" , "Krzysztof Halasa" , "Russell King" , lkml , netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@lists.arm.linux.org.uk In-Reply-To: <463F8CB4.3040603@garzik.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <463F27CE.2040008@garzik.org> <463F8CB4.3040603@garzik.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1867 Lines: 37 On 5/8/07, Jeff Garzik wrote: > Satyam Sharma wrote: > > Yes, mixing select and depends is a recipe for build disasters. Call > > me a rabid fanatic, but I would in fact go as far as to say that this > > whole "select" thing in the Kconfig process is one big BUG, and not a > > feature. People are lazy by nature and would rather just "select" a > > dependency for their config option than burden users with several > > "depends". > > Tough, the kernel community has voted against you. Heh ... I guess I appeared a trifle _too_ fanatic there, but I'm not. That rant against it was actually more about controlling its {ab-,mis-}use and rampant proliferation (even to cases where it is inapplicable / avoidable) than removing it altogether. Especially, when a developer is lazy / wrong and mixes select and depends in the same dependency chain leading to errors. > It makes far more sense to include a driver during kernel configuration, > and have that driver pull in its libraries via 'select'. The lame > alternative requires developers to know which libraries they need BEFORE > picking their drivers, which is backwards and requires legwork on the > part of the kernel developer. (That bit about a developer _knowing_ which libraries to select manually before selecting a driver is not really true, you can "?" on a config item and get all its "depends" and "select" dependencies anyway -- and it requires more leg work, yes, but then you'll never have build failures either) Still, I don't really disagree w.r.t. "select"ing libraries, as long as we're careful to limit them to _only_ libraries. - 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/