Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1A38BC61DA4 for ; Thu, 2 Feb 2023 14:27:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S231681AbjBBO1o (ORCPT ); Thu, 2 Feb 2023 09:27:44 -0500 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:41944 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S230144AbjBBO1m (ORCPT ); Thu, 2 Feb 2023 09:27:42 -0500 Received: from ams.source.kernel.org (ams.source.kernel.org [IPv6:2604:1380:4601:e00::1]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D330FBB9D; Thu, 2 Feb 2023 06:27:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.kernel.org (relay.kernel.org [52.25.139.140]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ams.source.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 616DCB82670; Thu, 2 Feb 2023 14:27:39 +0000 (UTC) Received: by smtp.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 8C809C433D2; Thu, 2 Feb 2023 14:27:37 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=linuxfoundation.org; s=korg; t=1675348058; bh=qOwTu/BTR9R+73FMppDBlSi8/NkSXWZrGllJ1FIjvL0=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:References:In-Reply-To:From; b=adEKWk11wzuIUaKuNN7JMFb/VwO1GBm3YEduvlKAYdT3270fPE8FycqG1xl0aDPoS zjigbG9JvCbZ5UYg/4PEtPC3rgHpEHYyJ2u60nx//7JT/w7ph7/n6Z0UkpE0LuBkYj FX55b/7rUzkuVJKVjmP+gTU06BhW/QAKgTKnnlSw= Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2023 15:27:34 +0100 From: Greg KH To: Linux regressions mailing list Cc: Konstantin Ryabitsev , Randy Dunlap , Lukas Bulwahn , linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jonathan Corbet Subject: Re: [PATCH v1] docs: describe how to quickly build Linux Message-ID: References: <1f217c94-b90f-359a-2142-0d3ae5d84fc6@leemhuis.info> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <1f217c94-b90f-359a-2142-0d3ae5d84fc6@leemhuis.info> Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Feb 02, 2023 at 12:15:36PM +0100, Linux kernel regression tracking (Thorsten Leemhuis) wrote: > [adding Konstantin and Greg to the list of recipients] > > On 01.02.23 12:52, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote: > > Add a text explaining how to quickly build a kernel, as that's something > > users will often have to do when they want to report an issue or test > > proposed fixes. This is a huge and frightening task for quite a few > > users these days, as many rely on pre-compiled kernels and have never > > built their own. They find help on quite a few websites explaining the > > process in various ways, but those howtos often omit important details > > or make things too hard for the 'quickly build just for testing' case > > that 'localmodconfig' is really useful for. Hence give users something > > at hand to guide them, as that makes it easier for them to help with > > testing, debugging, and fixing the kernel. > > Side note: after feedback on social media I'll likely switch to a title > like "how to quickly configure & build a trimmed-down Linux kernel", as > some people from the current title assumed this would be about things > like ccache. I'll also likely will switch to using a localversion file > in the buildroot instead of modifying the EXTRAVERSION in the top-level > makefile (but I haven't actually tried it yet). > > > [...] > > > > The text currently describes two approaches to retrieve Linux' sources > > using git: the regular clone with linux-stable as a remote and a shallow > > clone with just one branch from linux-stable. The shallow clone approach > > is a little bit more tricky to describe and handle, but downloads way > > less data – and thus is a lot quicker, unless you have a really really > > quick link to the internet (which in some parts of the world is hard to > > come by). That's why I wonder if the text should switch to making the > > shallow clone with selected stable branches the default. What do you > > think, dear reader? > > So, I looked into what Greg suggested (e.g. > https://kernel.org/best-way-to-do-linux-clones-for-your-ci.html and > https://www.kernel.org/cloning-linux-from-a-bundle.html > ). Assuming users have a up2date git (afaics 2.38+) I could use commands > like this in my text: > > curl -L > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/clone.bundle > -o ~/linux/linux-stable.git.bundle > git clone --bundle-uri=linux-stable.git.bundle > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git > ~/linux/sources > rm ~/linux/linix-stable.git.bundle > > This took roundabout 16 minutes with my 100 Mbit cable internet > connection (~9 min for the download, 7 for the clone [the machine used > is somewhat old]) and downloads & stores ~4,5 GByte data (without checkout). > > [side note: using > "--bundle-uri=https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/clone.bundle" > does not work (due to the redirect? whatever) -- but that might be > unwise anyway in case the download is interrupted] > > > Then I tried creating a shallow clone like this: > > git clone > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git > --depth 1 -b v6.1 > git remote set-branches --add origin master > git fetch --all --shallow-exclude=v6.1 > git remote add -t linux-6.1.y linux-stable > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git > git fetch --all --shallow-exclude=v6.1 > > This took only roundabout 2 minutes and downloads & stores ~512 MByte > data (without checkout). > > > Not totally sure, but the shallow clone somehow feels more appropriate > for the use case (reminder, there is a "quickly" in the document title), > even if such a clone is less flexible (e.g. users have to manually add > stable branches they are interested it; and they need to be careful when > using git fetch). > > That's why I now strongly consider using the shallow clone method by > default in v2 of this text. Or does that also create a lot of load on > the servers? Or are there other strong reason why using a shallow clone > might be a bad idea for this use case? I think Konstantin answered your question already on a social network based on the server load question. For the "will this work for testing", sure, a shallow clone should work just fine, if no one has to use 'git bisect' to go back further than the version you originally clone. Hopefully that's not a normal thing. thanks, greg k-h