Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [PATCH] [RFC] adding support for .patches and /proc/patches.gz | From | Jon Oberheide <> | Date | Wed, 12 May 2004 00:59:28 -0400 |
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On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 14:37, Bill Davidsen wrote: > Jon Oberheide wrote: > > Greetings, > > > > This feature has been brought up several times before, as can be seen > > here: > > http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0404.3/0798.html > > http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0203.1/0598.html > > http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9803.0/0223.html > > > > For those unfamiliar, a file linux/.patches would be adding to the > > source tree. When applying patches to the source tree, descriptive > > information would be written to .patches. After compilation and running > > of this kernel, the .patches information would be accessible through > > /proc/patches.gz; similar to the /proc/config.gz feature. > > The first question would be, patches between the current kernel and > what? Vendor kernel, people may not have it. Kernel.org kernal, just the > patches to a current vendor kernel diff would be pretty huge in some cases.
Any patches applied against the current vanilla kernel.org kernel would be listed in .patches. This would include vendor, third-party, and even pre/bk/mm patches.
Keep in mind, .patches would not contain the entire patch, as that would be WAY to large, but just a short entry such as the name, date last modified, and date applied of the patch file.
> Let's say it looks like a high cost/benefit ratio, would be much less > effective unless it were used for every patch, and feels like something > you might want to do within an organization rather than as a general > practice.
Exactly as I stated, adoption would be the hardest part. Paul's idea of adding an option to patch w/o breaking POSIX sounds like a way to go. Of course that would require widespread documentation updates and contacting vendors but would be very possible.
> Sorry, you asked for comments...
No need to be sorry, thanks! :)
Regards, Jon Oberheide jon@focalhost.com [unhandled content-type:application/pgp-signature] | |