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SubjectRe: Kernel v2.3.x


On Tue, 21 Jul 1998, Alex Buell wrote:

> I've been thinking about the 2.3.x development, I have some suggestions
> that might help make the code tree more manageable.
>
> How about splitting the kernel tree into separate .tar.gz files like so:
>
> 1) Linux-Core-2.3.x.tar.gz - contains the 100% portable core of kernel
> 2) Linux-Arch-<cpu>-2.3.x.tar.gz - contains the architecture specifics
> i.e Linux-Arch-ia32-2.3.x,
> Linux-Arch-ia64-2.3.x,
> Linux-Arch-mips-2.3.x ... and so forth.
> 3) Linux-Drivers-<cpu>-2.3.x - contains the drivers for that architecture
> ie. Linux-Drivers-ia32... you get the idea.
>
> The idea behind this is to make it easier for people to download just the
> components they want for their particular architecture, instead of
> downloading everything as at present for the 2.1.x tree. Then they either
> untar themselves or use a script to "plug" the sources into a complete
> Linux tree, and configure using what someone proposed (a database config?)
> earlier this year. It'd certainly reduce the size of the files people have
> to download, and even make it easier to cross compile kernels.
>
> Any comments?

Capitalised filenames bite.

If you download diff's, you average about 2MB downloads per month, so
for most people downloads aren't an issue (the download charges are a
tiny $0.50 per month for me, all from a local mirror site).

Breaking the kernel into parts increases the build complexity: dozens
of scripts would be needed to put them back together, or handle cases
where "chunks" are missing, or of the wrong version.

Normal users shouldn't be compiling kernels anyway, not now that most
drivers have been modularised. Adding clever "chunk" scripts is a lot
of work, for an insignificant benefit, to not that many people.

Internet bandwidth is getting faster and cheaper. Kernel "chunks" may
make some sense today, but I personally doubt the increases in kernel
size exceed the increases in Internet bandwidth, anytime soon.

All that said: if somebody wants to write the code, go ahead, and the
king penguin will make a decision. I believe code to do the above was
already written some time ago, anyway.


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