[PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be deselectable
from the top-level FS menu.

Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>

---

 fs/Kconfig            |    4 ----
 fs/partitions/Kconfig |    9 +++++++--
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/Kconfig b/fs/Kconfig
index 37db79a..f06241f 100644
--- a/fs/Kconfig
+++ b/fs/Kconfig
@@ -2143,11 +2143,7 @@ config 9P_FS
 endif # NETWORK_FILESYSTEMS

 if BLOCK
-menu "Partition Types"
-
 source "fs/partitions/Kconfig"
-
-endmenu
 endif

 source "fs/nls/Kconfig"
diff --git a/fs/partitions/Kconfig b/fs/partitions/Kconfig
index cb5f0a3..4bb87d2 100644
--- a/fs/partitions/Kconfig
+++ b/fs/partitions/Kconfig
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 #
 # Partition configuration
 #
-config PARTITION_ADVANCED
-	bool "Advanced partition selection"
+
+menuconfig PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Advanced partition support"
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned under an operating system running on a different
@@ -14,6 +15,8 @@ config PARTITION_ADVANCED

 	  If unsure, say N.

+if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+
 config ACORN_PARTITION
 	bool "Acorn partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
@@ -249,3 +252,5 @@ config SYSV68_PARTITION
 	  partition table format used by Motorola Delta machines (using
 	  sysv68).
 	  Otherwise, say N.
+
+endif # PARTITION_ADVANCED

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:20:49 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> 
> Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be deselectable
> from the top-level FS menu.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>

Hi,

I like the idea, but it does have one problem.  Before this patch, if someone
disabled PARTITION_ADVANCED, the .config would still contain
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
but after this change, that config line is missing.  Not good.

> ---
> 
>  fs/Kconfig            |    4 ----
>  fs/partitions/Kconfig |    9 +++++++--
>  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/Kconfig b/fs/Kconfig
> index 37db79a..f06241f 100644
> --- a/fs/Kconfig
> +++ b/fs/Kconfig
> @@ -2143,11 +2143,7 @@ config 9P_FS
>  endif # NETWORK_FILESYSTEMS
> 
>  if BLOCK
> -menu "Partition Types"
> -
>  source "fs/partitions/Kconfig"
> -
> -endmenu
>  endif
> 
>  source "fs/nls/Kconfig"
> diff --git a/fs/partitions/Kconfig b/fs/partitions/Kconfig
> index cb5f0a3..4bb87d2 100644
> --- a/fs/partitions/Kconfig
> +++ b/fs/partitions/Kconfig
> @@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
>  #
>  # Partition configuration
>  #
> -config PARTITION_ADVANCED
> -	bool "Advanced partition selection"
> +
> +menuconfig PARTITION_ADVANCED
> +	bool "Advanced partition support"
>  	help
>  	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
>  	  were partitioned under an operating system running on a different
> @@ -14,6 +15,8 @@ config PARTITION_ADVANCED
> 
>  	  If unsure, say N.
> 
> +if PARTITION_ADVANCED
> +
>  config ACORN_PARTITION
>  	bool "Acorn partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
>  	default y if ARCH_ACORN
> @@ -249,3 +252,5 @@ config SYSV68_PARTITION
>  	  partition table format used by Motorola Delta machines (using
>  	  sysv68).
>  	  Otherwise, say N.
> +
> +endif # PARTITION_ADVANCED


---
~Randy
Linux Plumbers Conference, 17-19 September 2008, Portland, Oregon USA
http://linuxplumbersconf.org/

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:20:49 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>
> >
> > Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be deselectable
> > from the top-level FS menu.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
>
> Hi,
>
> I like the idea, but it does have one problem.  Before this patch,
> if someone disabled PARTITION_ADVANCED, the .config would still
> contain CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y but after this change, that config
> line is missing.  Not good.

ah, quite right.  the obvious solution is to move MSDOS_PARTITION out
of there since it doesn't even *remotely* qualify as an "advanced"
partition -- it's about as basic as it gets.  i'll ponder and
resubmit.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Calvin Walton]

On Sat, 2008-07-26 at 17:52 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:20:49 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be deselectable
> > > from the top-level FS menu.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I like the idea, but it does have one problem.  Before this patch,
> > if someone disabled PARTITION_ADVANCED, the .config would still
> > contain CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y but after this change, that config
> > line is missing.  Not good.
> 
> ah, quite right.  the obvious solution is to move MSDOS_PARTITION out
> of there since it doesn't even *remotely* qualify as an "advanced"
> partition -- it's about as basic as it gets.  i'll ponder and
> resubmit.

It's not that any of the partition types in the menu are advanced - it's
that the menu lets an "advanced" user add or remove support for
partitions types that are not native to their platform. This is so
someone can, say, mount a sparc scsi disk on an x86 box.

-- 
Calvin Walton <calvin.walton@gmail.com>

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008, Calvin Walton wrote:

> On Sat, 2008-07-26 at 17:52 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > On Sat, 26 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> >
> > > On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:20:49 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be
> > > > deselectable from the top-level FS menu.
> > > >
> > > > Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I like the idea, but it does have one problem.  Before this
> > > patch, if someone disabled PARTITION_ADVANCED, the .config would
> > > still contain CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y but after this change,
> > > that config line is missing.  Not good.
> >
> > ah, quite right.  the obvious solution is to move MSDOS_PARTITION
> > out of there since it doesn't even *remotely* qualify as an
> > "advanced" partition -- it's about as basic as it gets.  i'll
> > ponder and resubmit.
>
> It's not that any of the partition types in the menu are advanced -
...

but that's how it's **listed** in "make menuconfig".  once you click
on

  Partition Types  --->

the top-level config option that selects or deselects all of that menu
is labelled:

  [*] Advanced partition selection
      ^^^^^^^^

there's a logical inconsistency in that part of the menu -- are those
just regular partitions, or are they "advanced" partitions?  pick one.

  i'm not sure there's an elegant redesign for that -- an obvious fix
(if it's even worth doing) is to move the fundamental MSDOS partition
option out of there since it's not an "advanced" option.  and that
MSDOS option doesn't even really belong there anyway since, even if
you deselect that entire submenu, you still get CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION
selected in your eventual .config file.

  yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if there's
a trivial fix for it.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

>   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
> unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if there's
> a trivial fix for it.

Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all others
under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with menuconfig.

Not quite trivial, but not messy either.

Patch below.  Comments?
---

From: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>

Use "menuconfig" to allow all advanced partitions to be deselectable
from the FS partitions menu.
However, leave MSDOS_PARTITION as a basic partition type (i.e.,
not advanced), so that its "default y" remains in effect.

Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
---

 fs/Kconfig            |    6 ----
 fs/partitions/Kconfig |   72 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------
 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)

--- lin2626-g9-kerndoc.orig/fs/Kconfig
+++ lin2626-g9-kerndoc/fs/Kconfig
@@ -2142,14 +2142,8 @@ config 9P_FS
 
 endif # NETWORK_FILESYSTEMS
 
-if BLOCK
-menu "Partition Types"
-
 source "fs/partitions/Kconfig"
 
-endmenu
-endif
-
 source "fs/nls/Kconfig"
 source "fs/dlm/Kconfig"
 
--- lin2626-g9-kerndoc.orig/fs/partitions/Kconfig
+++ lin2626-g9-kerndoc/fs/partitions/Kconfig
@@ -1,8 +1,19 @@
 #
 # Partition configuration
 #
-config PARTITION_ADVANCED
-	bool "Advanced partition selection"
+
+if BLOCK
+
+menu "Partition types"
+
+config MSDOS_PARTITION
+	bool "PC BIOS (MSDOS partition tables) support"
+	default y
+	help
+	  Say Y here.
+
+menuconfig PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Advanced partition support"
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned under an operating system running on a different
@@ -14,14 +25,16 @@ config PARTITION_ADVANCED
 
 	  If unsure, say N.
 
+if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+
 config ACORN_PARTITION
-	bool "Acorn partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Acorn partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	help
 	  Support hard disks partitioned under Acorn operating systems.
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_CUMANA
-	bool "Cumana partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Cumana partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 	help
@@ -29,12 +42,12 @@ config ACORN_PARTITION_CUMANA
 	  were partitioned using the Cumana interface on Acorn machines.
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_EESOX
-	bool "EESOX partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "EESOX partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_ICS
-	bool "ICS partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "ICS partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 	help
@@ -42,7 +55,7 @@ config ACORN_PARTITION_ICS
 	  were partitioned using the ICS interface on Acorn machines.
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_ADFS
-	bool "Native filecore partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Native filecore partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 	help
@@ -52,7 +65,7 @@ config ACORN_PARTITION_ADFS
 	  `Y' here, Linux will support disk partitions created under ADFS.
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_POWERTEC
-	bool "PowerTec partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "PowerTec partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 	help
@@ -60,7 +73,7 @@ config ACORN_PARTITION_POWERTEC
 	  the PowerTec SCSI drive.
 
 config ACORN_PARTITION_RISCIX
-	bool "RISCiX partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "RISCiX partition support"
 	default y if ARCH_ACORN
 	depends on ACORN_PARTITION
 	help
@@ -69,21 +82,21 @@ config ACORN_PARTITION_RISCIX
 	  to read disks partitioned under RISCiX.
 
 config OSF_PARTITION
-	bool "Alpha OSF partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Alpha OSF partition support"
 	default y if ALPHA
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned on an Alpha machine.
 
 config AMIGA_PARTITION
-	bool "Amiga partition table support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Amiga partition table support"
 	default y if (AMIGA || AFFS_FS=y)
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned under AmigaOS.
 
 config ATARI_PARTITION
-	bool "Atari partition table support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Atari partition table support"
 	default y if ATARI
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
@@ -91,28 +104,22 @@ config ATARI_PARTITION
 
 config IBM_PARTITION
 	bool "IBM disk label and partition support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED && S390
+	depends on S390
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to be able to read the hard disk
 	  partition table format used by IBM DASD disks operating under CMS.
 	  Otherwise, say N.
 
 config MAC_PARTITION
-	bool "Macintosh partition map support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Macintosh partition map support"
 	default y if (MAC || PPC_PMAC)
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned on a Macintosh.
 
-config MSDOS_PARTITION
-	bool "PC BIOS (MSDOS partition tables) support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
-	default y
-	help
-	  Say Y here.
-
 config BSD_DISKLABEL
 	bool "BSD disklabel (FreeBSD partition tables) support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED && MSDOS_PARTITION
+	depends on MSDOS_PARTITION
 	help
 	  FreeBSD uses its own hard disk partition scheme on your PC. It
 	  requires only one entry in the primary partition table of your disk
@@ -125,7 +132,7 @@ config BSD_DISKLABEL
 
 config MINIX_SUBPARTITION
 	bool "Minix subpartition support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED && MSDOS_PARTITION
+	depends on MSDOS_PARTITION
 	help
 	  Minix 2.0.0/2.0.2 subpartition table support for Linux.
 	  Say Y here if you want to mount and use Minix 2.0.0/2.0.2
@@ -133,7 +140,7 @@ config MINIX_SUBPARTITION
 
 config SOLARIS_X86_PARTITION
 	bool "Solaris (x86) partition table support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED && MSDOS_PARTITION
+	depends on MSDOS_PARTITION
 	help
 	  Like most systems, Solaris x86 uses its own hard disk partition
 	  table format, incompatible with all others. Saying Y here allows you
@@ -143,7 +150,7 @@ config SOLARIS_X86_PARTITION
 
 config UNIXWARE_DISKLABEL
 	bool "Unixware slices support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED && MSDOS_PARTITION
+	depends on MSDOS_PARTITION
 	---help---
 	  Like some systems, UnixWare uses its own slice table inside a
 	  partition (VTOC - Virtual Table of Contents). Its format is
@@ -163,7 +170,6 @@ config UNIXWARE_DISKLABEL
 
 config LDM_PARTITION
 	bool "Windows Logical Disk Manager (Dynamic Disk) support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED
 	---help---
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned using Windows 2000's/XP's or Vista's Logical Disk
@@ -197,14 +203,14 @@ config LDM_DEBUG
 	  If unsure, say N.
 
 config SGI_PARTITION
-	bool "SGI partition support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "SGI partition support"
 	default y if DEFAULT_SGI_PARTITION
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to be able to read the hard disk
 	  partition table format used by SGI machines.
 
 config ULTRIX_PARTITION
-	bool "Ultrix partition table support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Ultrix partition table support"
 	default y if MACH_DECSTATION
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to be able to read the hard disk
@@ -212,7 +218,7 @@ config ULTRIX_PARTITION
 	  Otherwise, say N.
 
 config SUN_PARTITION
-	bool "Sun partition tables support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "Sun partition tables support"
 	default y if (SPARC || SUN3 || SUN3X)
 	---help---
 	  Like most systems, SunOS uses its own hard disk partition table
@@ -228,24 +234,28 @@ config SUN_PARTITION
 
 config KARMA_PARTITION
 	bool "Karma Partition support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to mount the Rio Karma MP3 player, as it
 	  uses a proprietary partition table.
 
 config EFI_PARTITION
 	bool "EFI GUID Partition support"
-	depends on PARTITION_ADVANCED
 	select CRC32
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to use hard disks under Linux which
 	  were partitioned using EFI GPT.
 
 config SYSV68_PARTITION
-	bool "SYSV68 partition table support" if PARTITION_ADVANCED
+	bool "SYSV68 partition table support"
 	default y if VME
 	help
 	  Say Y here if you would like to be able to read the hard disk
 	  partition table format used by Motorola Delta machines (using
 	  sysv68).
 	  Otherwise, say N.
+
+endif # PARTITION_ADVANCED
+
+endmenu
+
+endif # BLOCK

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

>
> >   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
> > unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if there's
> > a trivial fix for it.
>
> Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all others
> under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with menuconfig.
>
> Not quite trivial, but not messy either.
>
> Patch below.  Comments?

i'll check shortly and get back to you.  thanks.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> >   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
> > unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if
> > there's a trivial fix for it.
>
> Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all
> others under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with
> menuconfig.
>
> Not quite trivial, but not messy either.
>
> Patch below.  Comments?

... patch snipped ...

  i suspect that's as good as it's going to get, but it's unfortunate
that it adds yet another level of submenu under "Partition types."
personally, i was pondering a top level submenu entry of "Advanced
partition types" in which the (non-advanced) MSDOS partition support
was yanked out of there *entirely*.

  it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
"Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
(CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?

  seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:42:47 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 
> > >   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
> > > unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if
> > > there's a trivial fix for it.
> >
> > Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all
> > others under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with
> > menuconfig.
> >
> > Not quite trivial, but not messy either.
> >
> > Patch below.  Comments?
> 
> ... patch snipped ...
> 
>   i suspect that's as good as it's going to get, but it's unfortunate
> that it adds yet another level of submenu under "Partition types."

I looked but didn't see a way to avoid that.

> personally, i was pondering a top level submenu entry of "Advanced
> partition types" in which the (non-advanced) MSDOS partition support
> was yanked out of there *entirely*.

I did that first but left MSDOS partitioning in the main FS menu.
I didn't like it being separated from the others.

>   it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
> fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
> perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
> "Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
> (CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?

That could be done, but still, I'd rather have all of the partition types
close together instead of far apart.

>   seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
> not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.

since MP3 players & cameras use it?  :)
Other than that, I could do without it for awhile.


Thanks.
---
~Randy
Linux Plumbers Conference, 17-19 September 2008, Portland, Oregon USA
http://linuxplumbersconf.org/

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:42:47 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> >
> > > >   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
> > > > unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if
> > > > there's a trivial fix for it.
> > >
> > > Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all
> > > others under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with
> > > menuconfig.
> > >
> > > Not quite trivial, but not messy either.
> > >
> > > Patch below.  Comments?
> >
> > ... patch snipped ...
> >
> >   i suspect that's as good as it's going to get, but it's
> > unfortunate that it adds yet another level of submenu under
> > "Partition types."
>
> I looked but didn't see a way to avoid that.

  upon further consideration, i don't either, so i'm happy with it.
the only thing i might add is some actual help text for that
MSDOS_PARTITION option -- something more informative than "Say Y
here."  perhaps a sentence explaining *why* people might want to say
"Y" there?  or the rare circumstances under which they wouldn't?  just
a thought.

  other than that, it looks good.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Grant Coady]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:42:47 -0400 (EDT), "Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:

>On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
>
>> >   yes, it's nitpicking but, as it's laid out right now, it's
>> > unnecessarily confusing and inconsistent.  but i don't know if
>> > there's a trivial fix for it.
>>
>> Yes, I'd call MSDOS partitions basic, not Advanced, and then put all
>> others under an Advanced menu that can be toggled on/off easily with
>> menuconfig.
>>
>> Not quite trivial, but not messy either.
>>
>> Patch below.  Comments?
>
>... patch snipped ...
>
>  i suspect that's as good as it's going to get, but it's unfortunate
>that it adds yet another level of submenu under "Partition types."
>personally, i was pondering a top level submenu entry of "Advanced
>partition types" in which the (non-advanced) MSDOS partition support
>was yanked out of there *entirely*.
>
>  it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
>fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
>perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
>"Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
>(CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?
>
>  seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
>not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.

I've been compiling msdos support as modules for ages, and I have one 
x86 machine here that hasn't referenced an msdos filesystem for over 
four years ;)  

Grant.

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Calvin Walton]

On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:42 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
> fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
> perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
> "Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
> (CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?
> 
>   seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
> not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.
> 
> rday

Naturally, on an architecture other than x86 (e.g. sparc) you'll want to
ensure that the platform's native partitioning format (for sparc,
SUN_PARTITION) is similarly on by default, and difficult to unselect. 

In this case, you could get by perfectly without msdos partitions
enabled (although the default is still to enable them), unless you want
to read a usb key or something.

This was the point of the original menu, I think - it allowed each
partition type to have a default based on arch, but to hide away the
mess of other types unless you feel like overriding it.

You'll want to make sure in your patch that arches other than x86 don't
lose their own native partitioning types :)

-- 
Calvin Walton <calvin.walton@gmail.com>

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:02:20 -0400 Calvin Walton wrote:

> On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:42 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
> > fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
> > perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
> > "Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
> > (CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?
> > 
> >   seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
> > not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.
> > 
> > rday
> 
> Naturally, on an architecture other than x86 (e.g. sparc) you'll want to
> ensure that the platform's native partitioning format (for sparc,
> SUN_PARTITION) is similarly on by default, and difficult to unselect. 
> 
> In this case, you could get by perfectly without msdos partitions
> enabled (although the default is still to enable them), unless you want
> to read a usb key or something.
> 
> This was the point of the original menu, I think - it allowed each
> partition type to have a default based on arch, but to hide away the
> mess of other types unless you feel like overriding it.
> 
> You'll want to make sure in your patch that arches other than x86 don't
> lose their own native partitioning types :)


Thanks.  I won't bother pushing the latest patch.  :)


---
~Randy
Linux Plumbers Conference, 17-19 September 2008, Portland, Oregon USA
http://linuxplumbersconf.org/

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:02:20 -0400 Calvin Walton wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:42 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > > On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > > it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
> > > fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
> > > perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
> > > "Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
> > > (CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?
> > >
> > >   seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
> > > not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.
> > >
> > > rday
> >
> > Naturally, on an architecture other than x86 (e.g. sparc) you'll want to
> > ensure that the platform's native partitioning format (for sparc,
> > SUN_PARTITION) is similarly on by default, and difficult to unselect.
> >
> > In this case, you could get by perfectly without msdos partitions
> > enabled (although the default is still to enable them), unless you want
> > to read a usb key or something.
> >
> > This was the point of the original menu, I think - it allowed each
> > partition type to have a default based on arch, but to hide away the
> > mess of other types unless you feel like overriding it.
> >
> > You'll want to make sure in your patch that arches other than x86 don't
> > lose their own native partitioning types :)
>
> Thanks.  I won't bother pushing the latest patch.  :)

so, just to be clear, the consensus is to just leave it alone as it's
more trouble than it's worth to do anything about?

rday

p.s.  and don't get me started on that "CONFIG_EMBEDDED" menu.
grrrrrr ...
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:36:09 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:02:20 -0400 Calvin Walton wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:42 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > > > it strikes me that, at least on x86, MSDOS partition support is so
> > > > fundamental that it should take work for someone to turn it *off*.
> > > > perhaps simply have it on by default, and force someone to go under
> > > > "Configure standard kernel features (for small systems)"
> > > > (CONFIG_EMBEDDED) to make it go away?
> > > >
> > > >   seriously, how often is someone going to build a kernel for x86 and
> > > > not need MSDOS partition support?  just curious.
> > > >
> > > > rday
> > >
> > > Naturally, on an architecture other than x86 (e.g. sparc) you'll want to
> > > ensure that the platform's native partitioning format (for sparc,
> > > SUN_PARTITION) is similarly on by default, and difficult to unselect.
> > >
> > > In this case, you could get by perfectly without msdos partitions
> > > enabled (although the default is still to enable them), unless you want
> > > to read a usb key or something.
> > >
> > > This was the point of the original menu, I think - it allowed each
> > > partition type to have a default based on arch, but to hide away the
> > > mess of other types unless you feel like overriding it.
> > >
> > > You'll want to make sure in your patch that arches other than x86 don't
> > > lose their own native partitioning types :)
> >
> > Thanks.  I won't bother pushing the latest patch.  :)
> 
> so, just to be clear, the consensus is to just leave it alone as it's
> more trouble than it's worth to do anything about?

Probably.

I don't see the "if PARTITION_ADVANCED" block as being compatible with the
need to have default partition types per $ARCH.
Do you see some way around that problem?

---
~Randy
Linux Plumbers Conference, 17-19 September 2008, Portland, Oregon USA
http://linuxplumbersconf.org/

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:36:09 -0400 (EDT) Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> > so, just to be clear, the consensus is to just leave it alone as
> > it's more trouble than it's worth to do anything about?
>
> Probably.
>
> I don't see the "if PARTITION_ADVANCED" block as being compatible
> with the need to have default partition types per $ARCH. Do you see
> some way around that problem?

not presently.  and if i was going to invest more effort, i'd probably
be more tempted to try to reorg the train wreck that is the "Kernel
hacking" submenu, anyway.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
========================================================================

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Bodo Eggert]

On Sat, 2 Aug 2008, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> --- Original Message ---
> > Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > I don't see the "if PARTITION_ADVANCED" block as being compatible with the
> > > need to have default partition types per $ARCH.
> > > Do you see some way around that problem?
> > 
> > You need menuconfig_usedefaults.
> 
> Where is that?

Currently nowhere, it's just my idea of how to solve the problem.
It would be a variant of KConfig's menuconfig option, having the desired
behaviour.

Unfortunately I don't have time to implement that, especially since I don't 
know that part of the code. The last few weeks, I was barely able to
assemble my new desk.
-- 
To define recursion, we must first define recursion.

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Randy Dunlap]

--- Original Message ---
> Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> wrote:
> 
> > I don't see the "if PARTITION_ADVANCED" block as being compatible with the
> > need to have default partition types per $ARCH.
> > Do you see some way around that problem?
> 
> You need menuconfig_usedefaults.

Where is that?

~Randy

Re: [PATCH] FILESYSTEMS: Make "advanced partitions" immediately unselectable.

[Bodo Eggert]

Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> wrote:

> I don't see the "if PARTITION_ADVANCED" block as being compatible with the
> need to have default partition types per $ARCH.
> Do you see some way around that problem?

You need menuconfig_usedefaults.