Re: config(5) break down

[Eduardo Horvath <eeh%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

On Mon, 8 Mar 2010, Quentin Garnier wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 04:43:17PM +0000, Eduardo Horvath wrote:

> > Allright.  I have to ask:
> > 
> > If the plan is to go to a dynamically probed system with loadable modules, 
> > why keep config around at all?  It's only useful for custom kernels.  Why 
> > is it useful to give config a facelift instead of doing away with it 
> > entirely?
> 
> config(5) files carry information on what source file to build, under
> what conditions as well as information about drivers and relationships
> between devices.  Why would you do away with it entirely?  All that
> information will have to be stored somewhere anyway.

Yes.

It also specifies what drivers attach where.  If you have a modular kernel 
and want to add a new driver, you could compile it and stick it into the 
module directory tree, but if the config file didn't have that module in 
it when the kernel was originally built, your driver can never be loaded 
and your new device is useless.

config was a solution to the problem of needing to edit headers and source 
files to add a new device to the system.  In a modular world I think it's 
a bit dated and there will be a need to figure all this stuff out 
dynamically.

Eduardo