Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:59:44 +0100 From: Uwe Doering <gemini@geminix.org> To: FreeBSD Mailing list <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Kernel Questions Message-ID: <405046A0.9080702@geminix.org> In-Reply-To: <20040311090126.GA19147@alzatex.com> References: <20040311090126.GA19147@alzatex.com>
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Loren M. Lang wrote:
> A few questions on the FreeBSD kernel:
>
> 1. If I specify a driver in the config file with a device command, does
> that always mean that it's compiled in staticly and not as a module?
It will then be compiled in statically, but this doesn't affect the
module (see below).
> 2. How does make decide what to compile as a module? Is it everything
> not compiled into the kernel that it can compile as a module? And how
> would I tell what can only be compiled staticly and won't be compiled if
> it's not included with a device entry?
Per default all devices get compiled and installed as modules,
regardless of whether you compile some of the devices statically into
the kernel or not.
You can use
makeoptions MODULES_OVERRIDE="..."
to limit the modules to be compiled and installed to the list you
provide with this option. See the comments in the 'LINT' file.
> 3. The handbook seems to suggest to use the config, make, make install
> procedure for installing the kernel if you have no other reason for not
> using it, what is the reason for this? (The paragraph immediately
> following procedure 2)
This sequence takes care that all the modules get installed together
with the matching kernel, that a backup of both the kernel and the
modules is available (suffix '.old') in case the new kernel doesn't work
properly, and it also deals with the system immutable flag ('schg') that
protects '/kernel' from being deleted or clobbered by accident. You
would have to do all these things by hand if you didn't use the
recommended sequence.
Uwe
--
Uwe Doering | EscapeBox - Managed On-Demand UNIX Servers
gemini@geminix.org | http://www.escapebox.net
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