Re: [kbuild-devel] Re: kbuild: Problem with latest GNU make rc

["Jesper Juhl" <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>]

On 3/6/06, Giacomo A. Catenazzi <cate@debian.org> wrote:
> Sam Ravnborg wrote:
> >>   sr> Suggestion:
> >>   sr> We are now warned about an incompatibility in kbuild and we will
> >>   sr> fix this asap. But that you postpone this particular behaviour
> >>   sr> change until next make release. Maybe you add in this change as
> >>   sr> the first thing after the stable relase so all bleeding edge make
> >>   sr> users see it and can report issues.
> >>
> >> I am willing to postpone this change.  However, I can't say how much of
> >> a window this delay will give you: I can say that it's extremely
> >> unlikely that it will be another 3 years before GNU make 3.82 comes out.
> >
> > One year would be good. The fixed kernel build will be available in an
> > official kernel in maybe two or three months form now. With current pace
> > we will have maybe 3 more kernel relase until this hits us. And only on
> > bleeding edge machines.
>
> I don't think is a big issue. The short-cut "compile only the necessary
> files" is used mainly by developers.
> Anyway the kernel will remain correct. Maybe for old kernel it take more
> time to build the kernel, but correct.
>
> BTW Debian building tools (IIRC) clean the sources before every kernel
> building process, and in 2.4 (and previous) it was high recommended to
> clean and recompile all kernel before any changes, so no big issue in
> these cases.
> I don't know other "normal use", but I think it is not a big issue if
> people will need a complete build in the rare (IMHO) case that they
> want to recompile kernel (with small patches or changes in configuration).
>

Rebuilding the kernel tens (or hundreds) of times may be rare for most
ordinary users, but it's quite common for kernel developers.
Rebuilding the entire kernel every time you make a small change is a
big problem and cost a lot of people a lot of time - and the people
who will bear the cost are the ones who have to build many kernels.
IMHO this is a big problem.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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