Greetings all,
Since kernel 2.5.3, the monolithic Configure.help file has been broken
up into a hundred or so Config.help files. This division potentially
allows for customized help texts for different architectures. For
example, the CONFIG_SMP help text is different in arch/i386/Config.help
and arch/ppc/Config.help. However, a limitation of the current
configurators can make this a moot point.
Robert Love recently posted a "Configurable NR_CPUS for 2.5.24" patch
which adds a help text for CONFIG_NR_CPUS. The help text for his patch
is for the i386 arch only. Other architectures could display a help
text thusly:
For 32-bit architectures:
CONFIG_NR_CPUS
This allows you to specify the maximum number of CPUs which this
kernel will support. The maximum supported value is 32 and the
minimum value which makes sense is 2.
This is purely to save memory - each supported CPU adds
approximately eight kilobytes to the kernel image.
For 64-bit architectures:
CONFIG_NR_CPUS
This allows you to specify the maximum number of CPUs which this
kernel will support. The maximum supported value is 64 and the
minimum value which makes sense is 2.
This is purely to save memory - each supported CPU adds
approximately eight kilobytes to the kernel image.
I put together a trivial patch which adds the appropriate help text to
the 12 other architectures effected by Robert's patch.
The problem is that the current configurators generate a list of
Config.help files which can have other architectures listed first. Here
is a snippet from scripts/header.tk:
# Now pick out right help text:
set message [exec find . -name Config.help | xargs sed -n "
I don't know what determines the order in which "find" finds files, but
on my machine I get this subset of files:
./drivers/telephony/Config.help
./arch/sparc64/Config.help
./arch/i386/Config.help
./arch/ppc/8260_io/Config.help
The arch/sparc64/Config.help file is found before the
arch/i386/Config.help file, so if a CONFIG_NR_CPUS help text is in
sparc64, that is what I get when configuring for i386.
Now, I realize that this particular problem could be easily solved by
simply rewording the help text for CONFIG_NR_CPUS so that one text would
be appropriate and accurate for all archs.
For those of you wondering why we even have multiple copies of help
texts scattered around different arch/xxx/Config.help files, one answer
is that some distributions cut out the non-relevant arch source code
from their shipped source trees.
If customized help texts have any value, the configurators will have to
be upgraded so that either non-relevant arches are ignored, or the
relevant arch is searched first.
Any volunteers? Comments?
Steven
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