From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Jul 13 19:44:20 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id TAA25647 for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 13 Jul 1996 19:44:20 -0700 (PDT) Received: from home.lenzi ([200.247.23.196]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id TAA25576 for ; Sat, 13 Jul 1996 19:43:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from lenzi@localhost) by home.lenzi (8.7.5/8.7.3) id VAA01212; Sat, 13 Jul 1996 21:45:28 GMT Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 21:45:28 +0000 () From: "Lenzi, Sergio" X-Sender: lenzi@home To: "Sexton, Robert" cc: freebsd-hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: Kernel Config (Was: GENERIC Kernel Debate) In-Reply-To: <7366895B0187397C@mg01a.mhs.squared.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Thu, 11 Jul 1996, Sexton, Robert wrote: > > Is it possible for us to get away from the use of compilers in kernel > config? I come from the SCO world, and we have a nice mechanism for > adding and removing devices without recompiling the kernel. It does have > to be relinked, but that's a much smaller job. Hello Robert, I have been using sysV kernels for a long time too. Now I am an BSD converted. The problem for kernel build time (30 minutes) or so seems to be too long compared with of a SysV rel 3.2. Now I use to do this way: 1) define the machine, configure it with the config program. 2) do a make depend all install. (this takes 30-45 minutes). but only once. 3) In another need for reconfigure, (adding or removing devices...) I only do a config -n xxx. This does not removes the yet compiled modules, and links a new kernel without recompiling from scratch. Sometimes, when removind controllers or devices from a controller, the link stage complains about the controller type. All I do is remove the xxx.o that references the removed module and make all again. This time it recompiles xxx from the sources and the whole thing works. Same thing happens when installing firewall or multi-serial boards, in the firewall example, I remove all the ip*.o modules. In the serial boards I remove the serial.o or cy.o modules. The make then recompiles the modules from the sources, and the system builds a new kernel in 2-5 minutes. I think there is a great future in this BSD system for its speed, robust, support for software (in this list) and the exelent quality of the software. Hope this will help.