From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 9 18:06:03 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D74361D9 for ; Tue, 9 Apr 2013 18:06:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fjwcash@gmail.com) Received: from mail-qa0-f43.google.com (mail-qa0-f43.google.com [209.85.216.43]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9C23DEB5 for ; Tue, 9 Apr 2013 18:06:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-qa0-f43.google.com with SMTP id i13so1524961qae.16 for ; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:05:57 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:x-received:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id :subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=7X6ltFf0gFYysSugsF5Iv/EDeNV3pJK7/IKGUxMWM+U=; b=oCJP2JP0gsXqKFp0+senxaBVBiFszAp6PT+JV8C11f69Ye674+cpofq4RMg+AS1v8b fQjr09YM1kMf24GOxsFTZkklIH2DFsDlzerRhOlt8WCBYagBDm73eJr8uqNnRIR+jXop dwuzRyADnoVSlyQoeUHyLgHsPqnb/j7/iYB7gOs/XY8loN46cYxtiO/sZLzkvemBLx+3 Vaoz97YN+/vT4FmwGYCAUXdJp1eiZenTYB7jNUBQNaHQKTQqqVSTyDLicRuLeRGu8Y5x i2Go9/LvpJKrLyVoD44+aqa6L3SpxnN3+LaLT0ymh02TJfHENVzdzHAHL2rzuGAOghvG HA5w== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.224.23.135 with SMTP id r7mr11050661qab.80.1365530756901; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:05:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.49.51.9 with HTTP; Tue, 9 Apr 2013 11:05:56 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <516452C7.7040607@mu.org> Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 11:05:56 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: GSOC 2013 project " Kernel Size Reduction for Embedded System " From: Freddie Cash To: Wojciech Puchar Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.14 Cc: FreeBSD Hackers , Alfred Perlstein , Amit Rawat X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:06:03 -0000 You have to look at the in-memory sizes, not the on-disk sizes. Linux kernels are very barebones when it comes to what is compiled directly into the kernel image on disk. Everything else is loaded from modules at boot time. Especially if using distro-provided kernels. They even use ram disks / initrds to get around the "can't boot without drivers for Y, but Y is a module and not loaded at boot", adding extra memory pressure that's not shown in the on-disk size of the kernel image file. FreeBSD kernels tend to be the opposite, with everything compiled directly into the kernel image on-disk, and very little actually being loaded via modules. At least GENERIC, anyway. You would need to manually compile kernels with the same sets of drivers on each system, in order to do a proper comparison of on-disk sizes. Or, look at in-memory stats for the two, once the systems are booted, all modules are loaded, and the system is ready for use. Just comparing ls output of default FreeBSD/Linux installs isn't useful in any way. -- Freddie Cash fjwcash@gmail.com