Re: Linux kernel config maintainablility

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi!

David Craven <address@hidden> skribis:

> So I'm trying to get a linux-libre-kernel for arm going. For arm there
> is a multi_v7_defconfig we can use. I looked at the existing kernel
> configs we have and can't make heads or tails of them. My question is
> are any kernel options needed specifically for guixsd? And can we make
> it more readable/explicit by using a defconfig + adding the guixsd
> specific configs separately? This would allow people like me to
> understand what's actually needed to get guixsd working ;-)

guix-daemon needs CONFIG_DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES=y and that’s about
it.  GuixSD doesn’t have any unusual requirements.

Now, I agree that storing full config files makes it hard to understand
what non-default settings are used.  NixOS has a nicer way to express
this, but long ago people thought it might be fragile:

  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2014-06/msg00108.html
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2014-09/msg00370.html
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2014-07/msg00044.html
  
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-4.7.nix
  
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/generic.nix
  
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/generate-config.pl

Thoughts?

Ludo’.