Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 12:14:57 +0200 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> To: arch@freebsd.org Subject: /sys/conf is getting unwieldy to handle... Message-ID: <1688.1096884897@critter.freebsd.dk>
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I think somebody® should start to look at our kernel configuration mechanism now so that we can have something better for 6.x. I am sure that there are 257 ways to do this much better and that at least 5% of these solutions involve XML and 10% involves java and graphical userinterfaces, and at least a 24 bit colorspace for the bikeshed. I think a lot can be done with some very simple changes, and I think more userfriendly tools can be written on top of any sensible "run this ascii-file through this too" model, so lets try to leave the rocket science out of this for now and just improve on the scheme we all know and love. I would love to see a dedicated band of merry men go off in a corner somewhere and "just do it"® Any takers ? Here is a strawman to think about: Split GENERIC into a number of files: PROD.conf standard stuff for a production environment kernel. Stuff like UFS, CD9660 etc goes here. DEBUG.conf Adds the current canonical debug options. ATA.conf Adds ata drivers USB.conf Adds usb stuff FIREWIRE.conf IPV6.conf SCSI.conf NETGRAPH.conf IPFW.conf IPF.conf you get the idea. The actual GENERIC file would then look like: ident GENERIC include PROD.conf include ATA.conf include USB.conf include FIREWIRE.conf include SCSI.conf ... And people can create kernel config files which will be much more resistant to feature addition: ident MYKERNEL include PROD.conf include ATA.conf nooption ataraid include IPFW.conf -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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