Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 5 Mar 1996 14:13:31 -0500 (EST) | From | tyoung <> | Subject | Re: Why not make Linux source modular? |
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On Wed, 28 Feb 1996, Albert Cahalan wrote:
> >>>> My point is this: Why is Linux kernel source distributed as > >>>> one big lump? Many of the drivers could be distributed seperatly > >>>> as modules, such as file system drivers, some Networking protocols, > >>>> Net cards etc... and have different people maintaining them. Ftape > >>>> already does this, and it works. (Although he is mumbling about > >>>> integrating it with the kernel...) > >> > >> One _major_ advantage as having it all in one lump is that when I change > >> some interface, I can then fix all the pieces that use that interface, > >> rather than just tell people who maintain all the pieces to fix it. > >> Believe me, it makes things a _lot_ easier. > > > > Your point is understandable. However, a lot of the kernel code isn't used > > in a simple installation. Look at the Ethernet card drivers, how many > > of us have 5 different cards in a machine? Its the driver code have seems > > to be expanding by leaps. Perhaps just having "drop-in" source modules for > > netdrivers and SCSI drivers. These take 4.5 megs combined. > > > > The idea isn't to make it hard for developers, but the size of the kernel > > is a consideration that should be addressed. I've not seen much of > > this thread but I agree something needs to be done fairly soon. The > > question is: how? > > Put the source tree on a FTP site untarred, and write a tool to get > only what is needed. Change patch/diff to know the difference > between a missing file that needs to be added and a missing file > that is only missing because it was not downloaded. This should > work for most kernel patches. Also, hack the Makefiles to ignore > missing directories. > > I think it would be easiest to do this by directory only. > Example: if you have include/i386, you must have all of it.
Or write a script to remove all .c and .h files without matching .o files.
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