Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Belxjander Serechai <belxjander_serechai AT yahoo.co.nz>]

Why not a "PROVIDES KERNEL" with selection of kernel spells from
  kernel
  xen-kernel
  guru-kernel
  ...?

On Sat, 2005-29-10 at 11:34 -0700, David Brown wrote:
> 
>         After i had thought the options through i came to a conclusion
>         and i'd like
>         to suggest to do it the following way: 
>         
>         > So what I'm seeing is that you want a way to be able to
>         install a kernel
>         > without having to go through the selection of kernels and
>         patches.
>         
>         I like the newktree and oldktree concepts. The latter lacks a
>         way to untar 
>         (and maybe patch) the kernel by hand, since it only accepts
>         existing kernel
>         trees it has created by itself. That should be changed and
>         we'd have the
>         longed for debian functionality. (all /usr/src/linux-* should
>         be regarded 
>         as possible oldktree)
> 
> This can't happen, and the reason is because I save a file in the
> source tree that tells me what that source tree has been patched with
> so that I can generate a version for the spell, what patches to update
> next time. Furthermore there isn't any way for me to tell if a
> directory that was named /usr/src/linux-* is actually a linux kernel
> source that has been patched successfully or is even a kernel source
> in general.
> 
> 
>         Newktree on the other hand should do summon, unpacking and -
>         patching as far
>         as the spell knows. I like to have suggested versions which
>         have been 
>         tested by the sorcery team. 
> 
> s#sorcery team#grimoire team# ??? 
> Also I check to make sure every patch I add to the linux spell
> actually patches and compiles with my config file. Also it would be
> kinda hard to have 'suggested' patches or versions because each patch
> has a slightly different focus on development.  Some patches are good
> for servers and other patches are good for desktops and yet others are
> provided as a way for users to see the development of the kernel, etc.
> 
> There would have to be some sort of 'this is what I want to do' =>
> 'kernel you should use' mapping but I think that might be better as a
> wiki page instead of in the spell. 
> 
>         But i'd also like to be able to provide a
>         version number already available but untested by the gurus.
>         This is what 
>         i'd understand under CUSTOM.
> 
> Okay problems with this are what CUSTOM implies when trying to get the
> sources...
> if CUSTOM implies no source information generation or auto update
> information generation ; then
>     that's fine by me and it can be done that way. Whether it should
> be done or not is a different question.
> else
>     you're asking me to predict the future to download a patch that
> might have moved changed dependancies or even odder things (like the
> ac sources are 2.6.11-ac7 yet uname -r on the installed kernel is
> 2.6.11ac7 and that only started with the 2.6.11-ac4 iirc)
> 
> 
>         Sure, i might give a non-existing kernel version and get an
>         error.
> 
> of course but how confusing would this be for a beginner linux user
> who doesn't know anything about the linux kernel :\
> 
> 
>         > I think in an abstract way saying "use /usr/src/linux as my
>         kernel and
>         > go!!" would be a good idea but I'm wondering if this should
>         even be a
>         > part of the linux spell. (I'm concerned about bloat features
>         that could
>         > be better implemented solutions elsewhere)
>         
>         The advantage of the linux spell is more than just summon and
>         compile. It 
>         may trigger kernel dependencies and does install tracking
>         which is nice.
> 
> Yes I agree entirely but what I'm afraid of is that we'll have this
> monster of a spell that no one but me will be able to know exactly
> what everything is doing in the spell (kinda is that way now but I
> tried to get documentation describing the spell up publicly).  
> 
> (sounds a bit like sorcery)
> 
> Also dependancies would be easy to fix with adding and advanced linux
> spell just trigger on both and make both the linux and linux-advanced
> spells conflict...
> 
> 
> - David Brown
> 
> 
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