From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: [GIT] Networking Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 18:24:31 -0800 Message-ID: References: <20120106.175028.1076280359661712542.davem@davemloft.net> <20120106.180745.694506225640408539.davem@davemloft.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: David Miller Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20120106.180745.694506225640408539.davem@davemloft.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:07 PM, David Miller wrote: > > Ok, we can take away those default Kconfig tags for the UDP and AF_UNIX > bits, no problem. I'd really like the basic rule to be that all new features start out as 'default n'. Sure, some day they may be the common case, and then we can add the 'default y' line, but we should wait for that to happen, rather than try to push it. Because if the feature isn't so compelling that distributions don't start enabling the *use* of it, then we should acknowledge that too. The one exception is that when an *old* feature is hidden behind a *new* config option - if it used to be compiled in by default (even if that was for a bad reason), we should still default to compiling it in. So when you did the network driver Kconfig layout change, making those vendor choices default to 'y' (in order to see the old drivers that still existed under those choices) was the right thing to do, for example. Otherwise it's just too easy for people to be confused and not realize that they need to do something special in order to get their old supported behavior. And no, we have not always followed these rules. Too many new "cool features" don't get a config option at all, and just bloat the kernel whether they are used or not. And people don't even notice, because then you don't even get the heads-up from trying to reconfigure the kernel - the feature is just silently enabled without questions. Sometimes that's the right thing to do ("avoid the pain of new config options") but quite often it's just people being lazy. Oh well. Linus