Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 11:40:21 -0700
From: Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>
To: Nathaniel McCallum <nathaniel@natemccallum.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Exposing device ids and driver names
Message-ID: <20091001184021.GA26875@kroah.com>
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On Thu, Oct 01, 2009 at 02:35:40PM -0400, Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> On 10/01/2009 02:05 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 01, 2009 at 01:01:50PM -0400, Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> >> On 10/01/2009 12:42 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> >>> Why not just use the baseline kernel as a model for this.  Do a 'make
> >>> allmodconfig' and then extract the data and publish it that way.  No
> >>> kernel changes are needed, and then any distro can be easily matched up
> >>> by this based on what they are using.  That will save you time in
> >>> downloading zillions of distro releases, and provide a nice easy way to
> >>> show what the kernel.org releases support.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, I would not be able to track changes to the kernel in
> >> this model.  Since this is one of my explicit goals (to make sure that
> >> distro kernel changes get upstream), I think a non-invasive kernel
> >> modification would be worth the effort.
> >
> > But this was an invasive modification, it added space to the kernel
> > images for no real benifit other than for your tracking tools.  That's
> > not going to fly unless you can find another good use for the change.
> 
> Which is why I asked for advice for better options.  I would prefer a 
> non-invasive modification.  I am hoping that someone more familiar with 
> the layer would provide such a suggestion.
> 
> One potential benefit for moving module info to ELF sections would be 
> the ability to strip kernel modules.  As a test, I did this on a recent 
> Fedora rawhide kernel I had lying around.  Stripping the modules results 
> in a 43% decrease in size (82M to 47M).

Did those modules have debugging symbols enabled?  That seems like a
large savings for just the module device tables.

> But I still would prefer a non-invasive solution.

Agreed, sorry I don't have an idea on how to do it.

thanks,

greg k-h
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