/proc/config idea

[Ian Soboroff <ian@cs.umbc.edu>]

[sorry this doesn't have proper References: headers, i read the list
off the hypermail archive.]

there was some discussion of whether the kernel should emit a
/proc/config or some such for purposes of bug reporting, but that
seems to be a lot of bloat.

instead, why not try to point to a canonical location for a config
copy (we already basically do this with ksymoops and System.map), and
instead have a /proc/config-hash which emits a (precomputed) MD5 hash
of the .config file it was compiled with?

this way, you could check possible configs (Debian for example likes
to stash a copy in /boot, like System.map) and also know if they were
the right ones.

the one problem that comes to mind right now is modules, which needn't
correspond to a full kernel .config.

anyway, my $0.02.
ian

-- 
----
Ian Soboroff                                       ian@cs.umbc.edu
University of MD Baltimore County      http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~ian