Date: Tue, 4 Apr 95 14:45:55 MDT From: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) To: nate@trout.sri.MT.net (Nate Williams) Cc: rkw@dataplex.net, current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/i386/conf Makefile.i386 Message-ID: <9504042045.AA18525@cs.weber.edu> In-Reply-To: <199504041758.LAA06600@trout.sri.MT.net> from "Nate Williams" at Apr 4, 95 11:58:51 am
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> *BLECH* BSD systems have *never* (and should *never*) require that you > have the complete source tree installed just to build a kernel. Making > them go through alot of trouble to build a kernel is a waste of their > time. Many, many more people build kernels w/out src trees than people > who build kernels w/src trees. We are trying to make the system > *easier* to use for the avg. user w/out penalizing the developer. I'm glad you said this. When will the binary link kit be available? I've often thought that it should be possible to configure devices in and out of the kernel without regenerating more than a single object file containing the device switches. The really nice thing about this, of course, is that multiport board drivers and Adaptec drivers using Adaptec code, and (potentially) the Intel supplied-for-MACH binary math coprocesser emulator could all be supplied without sources in full conformance to the non disclosure agreements required to obtain them. To make the nay-sayers happy, putting the source in escrow with the condition that a non-disclosure be signed to obtain it should be sufficient to not vest too much in a driver writer as a single point of failure. That's just a legal niceity, however, and the main point, that it be *possible*, is the important thing. Actually, sufficient reliance on a devfs, loadable modules, and soft autoconfiguration with a "save" for "/kernel -c" boot should make it totally unnecessary to have a link kit to get a new kernel configuration anyway. Terry Lambert terry@cs.weber.edu --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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