On Wed, 2 Nov 2005, Rob wrote:
Kris Kennaway wrote:
You missed the part where I said that the error is commonly reported by
people who have chosen not to build modules.
The DEFAULTS construction is put in place to help 'novices' not to do
stupid things (as removing io/mem).
However, does 'building a kernel without modules' qualify as a novice
action? I wonder. I think if you know how to do that, you've quite
progressed in the world of kernel building!
My hope is that, increasingly, FreeBSD users will create kernel
configuration files using the "include" directive to specify a set of
changes relative to GENERIC. That will also help lower the rate of foot
shooting involving kernel components becoming optional. Most of my kernel
configuration files now look something like this:
include GENERIC
ident FLEDGE
makeoptions DEBUG=-g # Build kernel with gdb(1) debug symbols
options COMPAT_AOUT
options KDB
options DDB
options BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
options ALT_BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
options IPFIREWALL
options DUMMYNET
options IPDIVERT
options INVARIANTS
options INVARIANT_SUPPORT
nooptions WITNESS
nooptions WITNESS_SKIP_SPIN
Whereby I rely on GENERIC to provide the defaults for the configuration,
and then tweak to add/remove particular options or devices. I've found
this to be a more reliable way to track changing branches, as I don't have
to notice when the details of GENERIC (and now DEFAULTS) changes: I get
new device drivers when they are added, and unless I take specific action,
things don't disappear out from under me when they become optional, which
was the problem most people had with device mem and device io. They would
upgrade their source tree, but not resync their configuration file to the
latest tweaks in GENERIC. This was not an error, of course, since options
are there so they can be optional, but it did result in hard to debug
problems.
Robert N M Watson
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