Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755371Ab0KCOeO (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Nov 2010 10:34:14 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:36077 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755121Ab0KCOeM (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Nov 2010 10:34:12 -0400 Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 10:33:59 -0400 From: Dave Jones To: Wu Fengguang Cc: Ben Gamari , David Rientjes , KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki , "linux-mm@kvack.org" , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , Jesper Juhl Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add Kconfig option for default swappiness Message-ID: <20101103143358.GA19777@redhat.com> Mail-Followup-To: Dave Jones , Wu Fengguang , Ben Gamari , David Rientjes , KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki , "linux-mm@kvack.org" , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , Jesper Juhl References: <1288668052-32036-1-git-send-email-bgamari.foss@gmail.com> <87oca7evbo.fsf@gmail.com> <20101102140119.GA8294@localhost> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20101102140119.GA8294@localhost> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2057 Lines: 43 On Tue, Nov 02, 2010 at 10:01:20PM +0800, Wu Fengguang wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 01, 2010 at 08:52:30AM -0400, Ben Gamari wrote: > > > Ubuntu ships different kernels for desktop and server usage. From a > > > packaging standpoint it would be much nicer to have this set in the > > > kernel configuration. If we were to throw the setting /etc/sysctl.conf > > > the kernel would depend upon the package containing sysctl(8) > > > (procps). We'd rather avoid this and keep the default kernel > > > configuration in one place. > > > > In short, being able to specify this default in .config is just far > > simpler from a packaging standpoint than the alternatives. > > It's interesting to know what value you plan to use for your > desktop/server systems and the rationals (is it based on any > testing results?). And why it's easier to do it in kernel (hope it's > not because of trouble communicating with the user space packaging > team). Not sure why I was cc'd on this, but at least for Fedora, we still take the 'one kernel to rule them all' approach for every spin (and will likely continue to do so to maximise coverage testing) so a config option for us for things like this is moot. Whenever I've tried to push changes to our defaults through to our default /etc/sysctl.conf, it's been met with resistance due to beliefs that a) the file is there for _users_ to override decisions the distro made at build time and b) if this is the right default, why isn't the kernel setting it? The idea keeps coming up to have some userspace thing automatically tune the kernel to dtrt based upon whatever profile it has been fed. Various implementations of things like this have come and gone (Arjan and myself even wrote one circa 2000). For whatever reason, they don't seem to catch on. Dave -- 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/