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Date:   Sat, 1 Apr 2023 13:54:55 +0200
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To:     Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
Cc:     LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Linux Kbuild mailing list <linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org>,
        Armin Wolf <W_Armin@gmx.de>
From:   Mirsad Goran Todorovac <mirsad.todorovac@alu.unizg.hr>
Subject: [BUG] Problem with automatic kernel numbering
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Hi, Mr. Bagas, Sir!

I am talking about a problem with the CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=y feature.

I thought of a way to make an exact account of which patches were applied in a build
i.e. adding patch checksum to 6.3.0-rc4-00034-gfcd476ea6a88-dirty, for currently the
command

# rpm -ivh --oldpackage <kernelname>-<build-no>.rpm

install the kernels

kernel-6.3.0_rc4mt+20230330_00051_g8bb95a1662f8_dirty-24.x86_64.rpm
kernel-6.3.0_rc4mt+20230330_00051_g8bb95a1662f8_dirty-25.x86_64.rpm
kernel-6.3.0_rc4mt+20230330_00051_g8bb95a1662f8_dirty-26.x86_64.rpm

all overlapping (apparently everything after '-' [minus] sign is discarded,
so one has to reboot to another kernel, i.e. 6.1.15, remove the offending kernel,
and then install the new one in the sequence of testing.
The CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=y rpm build script might add something that rpm
command sees in the install process so the files do not overlap (as kernel names
are being truncated at '-' sign).

A smaller hash of the applied patches would suffice, considering the limit
of 64 chars. Or using an underscore '_' instead of minus '-', so the rpm
installer doesn't treat them as the same version of kernel.

Is this a violation of the build process?

It would be time and energy efficient, for changing the .config and
CONFIG_LOCALVERSION causes much greater recompilation and touches more dependencies.

Optionally, a /proc/<applied-patches-to-build> or something like that could be
added to the running kernel, much like i.e. TuxCare has kcarectl --patch-info
for live patches?

Thank you very much for considering this problem report.

Kind regards,
Mirsad


-- 
Mirsad Goran Todorovac
Sistem inženjer
Grafički fakultet | Akademija likovnih umjetnosti
Sveučilište u Zagrebu
 
System engineer
Faculty of Graphic Arts | Academy of Fine Arts
University of Zagreb, Republic of Croatia
The European Union

"I see something approaching fast ... Will it be friends with me?"