From owner-freebsd-arch Wed Nov 15 10: 8:34 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from bsdone.bsdwins.com (www.bsdwins.com [192.58.184.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BEF337B479; Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:08:30 -0800 (PST) Received: (from jwd@localhost) by bsdone.bsdwins.com (8.11.0/8.11.0) id eAFI8RF01795; Wed, 15 Nov 2000 13:08:27 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jwd) Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 13:08:27 -0500 From: "John W. De Boskey" To: Terry Lambert Cc: Eivind Eklund , John Baldwin , arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Turning on debugging in GENERIC Message-ID: <20001115130827.A1762@bsdwins.com> References: <20001115134312.C7752@warning.follo.net> <200011151755.KAA13742@usr01.primenet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <200011151755.KAA13742@usr01.primenet.com>; from tlambert@primenet.com on Wed, Nov 15, 2000 at 05:55:54PM +0000 Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG ----- Terry Lambert's Original Message ----- > > I'm not sure I'm happy about DIAGNOSTIC; unless changed, it > > significantly change some codepaths, and it produce output about system > > state, not just extra checks. Any plain checks that are under DIAGNOSTIC is > > there through a miscommunication or not finished conversion, anyway; it > > should only be causing extra debug output. > > I am not happy about the code path changes it engenders. > > However, I see the need for turning it on, during a period > where extreme instability of snapshots is anticipated/likely, > and I think that's the reason it is being proposed. > > Many people "try" -current on small scratch disks that they > install from snapshots, rather than polluting their local > trees with -current bits, particularly since the answer to > their bug reports is pretty much to ignore them and tell the > reporter to "resup" or ask "have you tried the snapshot?". > > I think that having the DIAGNOSTIC option is OK; on the other > hand, I somewhat wish that this would move from a GENERIC > file into a SNAPSHOT file, and that snapshots be configured > from there instead of GENERIC, since reverting this back and > forth every six months, instead of changing a cron script, > seems like a real waste of repository commits. I tend to disagree here... Please don't build snapshots with this code turned on. Yes, run with these options turned on by default in GENERIC. I think building snapshots with a SNAPSHOT kernel is an interesting idea, but it leads to dual maint issues where GENERIC gets updated, but SNAPSHOT does not. > > All that said, let's not downplay the code path changes: I > have worked in places where I had to be "the grumpy old man > of the source tree", when the code would not build due to > "DEBUG" _not_ being asserted during the build, or other such > diagnostic manifest constants. I really dislike manifest > constants in all forms, because of this, and prefer link or > run time tuning. Can we turn some of these options into sysctl variables and remove them as kernel config options? sysctl -w kern.diagnostics=1 with the appropriate code changes? (Yes, minor perf loss)... just .02 cents worth of rambling, -John > > I really see no _good_ reason a source repository should not > be at least buildable at all times, other than laziness, but > that's an argument for another day. > > > Terry Lambert > terry@lambert.org > --- > Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present > or previous employers. > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message