On Wed, Oct 03, 2012 at 03:36:53PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 03, 2012 at 07:46:18PM +0200, Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> > > it in the kernel tree, unless we wanted people to use the option?
> >
> > A solution could be to add that option under CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL and
> specify
> > that it must only be enabled by developers for specific reasons (overhead,
> > security). CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING falls into that category, right?
> >
> > We have CONFIG_RCU_USER_QS that is a specific case. It's an intermediate
> state
> > before we implement a true CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL. But the option is useless on
> its
> > own for users. Worse, it introduces a real overhead. OTOH we want it to be
> upstream
> > to make the development of full tickless feature more incremental.
> >
> > Perhaps we should put that under CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL.
>
> Overloading an existing config option for something unrelated seems
> unpleasant to me.
> It will only take a few people to start doing this, before it turns into a
> landslide
> where everyone ends up with DEBUG_KERNEL set.
> And what of people who already have DEBUG_KERNEL set ?
>
> Just state what you wrote above in the kconfig.
> Currently, RCU_USER_QS says nothing about the fact that it's work in progress.
Fair point!
> The missing part that I don't have an answer for however, is what happens
> when you deem this production ready? Distro maintainers won't notice the
> kconfig text changing. But perhaps that's a good thing, and will lead to
> things
> only being enabled when people explicitly ask for them in distros.
>
> Alternatively, if you really do want to go the path of a new config option,
> perhaps CONFIG_NOT_DISTRO_READY would spell things out more clearly.
> EXPERIMENTAL is such a wasteland it would take too much manpower to audit
> every case, and update accordingly, but scorching the earth and starting
> afresh might be feasible.
Heh! We might just plan to scorch the earth and start afresh every few
years. That might actually work... ;-)
Thanx, Paul
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