Re: Appending '+' to version, since 2.6.35-rc2

[Mark Hills <mark@pogo.org.uk>]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2010, Alexey Dobriyan wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 08:01:26PM +0100, Mark Hills wrote:
> > Commit 85a256d adds a new feature:
> > 
> >   [...] When CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO is not enabled, a `+' is appended
> >   to the kernel version to represent that the kernel has been revised
> >   since the last release unless "make LOCALVERSION=" was used to uniquely
> >   identify the build.
> > 
> > I'm finding this inconvenient for 'casual' kernel development.
> > 
> > For example, my usual workflow goes something like:
> > 
> > 1) find something I suspect is a bug
> > 2) upgrade to the latest stable or -rc kernel, to confirm
> > 3) experiment with patch to fix it
> > 
> > Since 2.6.35-rc2, going from step 2 to 3 causes the version of the kernel 
> > to change: forcing time-consuming rebuilds,
> 
> init/version.c
> kernel/configs.c
> + whatever patch has changed
> + vmlinux 2 or 3 times
> 
> That's not time consuming.

There is also the modpost step, which is most time consuming.

> 
> > installing modules, and manual 
> > changes associated with a new version number; eg. updating the lilo/grub 
> > config, or the distribution's initrd.
> 

-- 
Mark