From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 26 13:12:35 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3FAE716A402 for ; Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:12:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from anderson@freebsd.org) Received: from mh1.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [64.129.166.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1040E13C484 for ; Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:12:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from anderson@freebsd.org) Received: from [10.177.171.220] (neutrino.centtech.com [10.177.171.220]) by mh1.centtech.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l2QDCXFh057633; Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:12:34 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <4607C6C1.40301@freebsd.org> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:12:33 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (X11/20070320) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Peter Jeremy References: <20070324113739.GA41119@ravenloft.kiev.ua> <20070324135333.GA86105@FreeBSD.czest.pl> <20070324153108.P4956@fledge.watson.org> <20070324220041.GI847@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> <20070324233307.GA93841@FreeBSD.czest.pl> <20070325153013.E77473@ury.york.ac.uk> <4607523E.50201@freebsd.org> <20070326111702.GD838@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <20070326111702.GD838@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.4/2931/Mon Mar 26 03:43:40 2007 on mh1.centtech.com X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=8.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.6 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.6 (2006-10-03) on mh1.centtech.com Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Improved INCLUDE_CONFIG_FILE X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:12:35 -0000 On 03/26/07 06:17, Peter Jeremy wrote: > On 2007-Mar-25 23:55:26 -0500, Eric Anderson wrote: >> On 03/25/07 09:34, Gavin Atkinson wrote: >>> strings `sysctl -n kern.bootfile` | grep ^___ | sed -e 's/^___//' >>> >>> should still work if it was in a .comment section >> Unless you no longer have the running kernel, or it has changed since >> the boot up of the system. A sysctl knob to dump it is *very* useful. > > Note that kern.bootfile will get updated during installkernel. I also > can't think of a situation where I would have lost all copies of my > running kernel as well as the config file that was used to build it. > This could potentially happen if you ran two or more installkernels > without rebooting but I can't think of any reason why I would do that: > If a kernel builds, I am likely to try booting it before going onto > something else. If a kernel doesn't build, it won't install. > > Overall, having the config file loaded strikes me as a waste of RAM. > As Larry mentioned, the kernel config file (say GENERIC) is about 10k uncompressed. If it's bzipped or gzipped, as it is (including comments, etc) it ends up ~4k. My kernel, is about 7500k (not far from GENERIC), so the additional .05% is probably not noticeable by anyone. One reason you might not have the kernel lying around is because the system is net booted, so the kernel was sent across the network. You might have many different kernel configs running, and the kernel file may not be available to the hosts. Anyway, to me, the extra few kb in the kernel is not going to be noticeable by anyone except a small fraction of the users, and those users are already removing tons of stuff and have a very stripped down kernel anyhow. So, they can have a "options NO_INCLUDE_CONFIG" that will save them the 4kb if they want. It's hard for me to argue against having it in GENERIC, since the additional size is minimal (negligible actually), there are no adverse side affects, and there is great benefit for those of us who actually can think of situations where it would be helpful, and of course you can always optionally remove it. Eric