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Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support
From: |
Rob Landley |
Subject: |
Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support |
Date: |
Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:31:46 -0400 |
User-agent: |
KMail/1.9.1 |
On Wednesday 25 October 2006 11:01 am, Paul Brook wrote:
> > Oh, c'mon, Rob! I really didn't want to ask Paul Brook that, but
> > sure you'll fix my cluelessness right here, right now - tell me, tell me,
> > why Linux has dynamic-loadable modules support, which clueless passers-by
> > like me call "plugins"? It must be closed-source diversion, no?
>
> Linux has genuine reasons for wanting modules.
> Kernel size is important because (a) it has to be loaded by the bootloader,
> often from a small, slow device (eg. floppy, flash or network).
> (b) The whole kernel is permanently locked into ram. It you've ever tried to
> build a kernel with everything enable you'll know the result is unreasonably
> large. Modules allow the same kernel to work on a wide variety of large and
> small machines.
It also avoids a reboot cycle when you want to debug small changes to drivers
(assuming you didn't crash). Restarting a userspace app (like qemu) takes
five seconds. Restarting the kernel can take a minute and change, and often
involves pressing a button on a machine that's shoved under a desk and hard
to get at.
I've found avoiding the reboot cycle to be a nice thing with qemu (and User
Mode Linux), but alas you can't test a driver for hardware qemu doesn't
emulate. Nice for filesystems and VM stuff, though...
Rob
--
"Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add, but
when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, (continued)
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/23
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Brook, 2006/10/23
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/23
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Brook, 2006/10/23
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Christian MICHON, 2006/10/24
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Rob Landley, 2006/10/24
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/24
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Brook, 2006/10/25
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support,
Rob Landley <=
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/27
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/27
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Brook, 2006/10/27
- Re[2]: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Paul Sokolovsky, 2006/10/27
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, Rob Landley, 2006/10/24
- Re: [Qemu-devel] Config file support, David Baird, 2006/10/21
Re: [Qemu-devel] config file support, Ben Taylor, 2006/10/23