From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1757988Ab2ARU2e (ORCPT ); Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:28:34 -0500 Received: from mail.linuxfoundation.org ([140.211.169.12]:53814 "EHLO mail.linuxfoundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757135Ab2ARU2c (ORCPT ); Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:28:32 -0500 Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:28:30 -0800 From: Andrew Morton To: Andrew Jones Cc: rientjes@google.com, mingo@elte.hu, david.woodhouse@intel.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, gregkh@suse.de, davem@davemloft.net, axboe@kernel.dk, arnd@arndb.de, holt@sgi.com, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, linux@arm.linux.org.uk, hskinnemoen@gmail.com, egtvedt@samfundet.no, msalter@redhat.com, a-jacquiot@ti.com, starvik@axis.com, jesper nilsson , dhowells@redhat.com, takata@linux-m32r.org, geert@linux-m68k.org, yasutake koichi , jonas@southpole.se, kyle@mcmartin.ca, deller@gmx.de, jejb@parisc-linux.org, chris@zankel.net, greg@kroah.com, davej@redhat.com, airlied@linux.ie, jkosina@suse.cz, mchehab@infradead.org, johannes@sipsolutions.net, linville@tuxdriver.com Subject: Re: [PATCH] kconfig: untangle EXPERT and EMBEDDED Message-Id: <20120118122830.037f1e29.akpm@linux-foundation.org> In-Reply-To: References: <1326295008-29795-1-git-send-email-drjones@redhat.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.0.2 (GTK+ 2.20.1; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:08:30 -0500 (EST) Andrew Jones wrote: > CONFIG_EMBEDDED to CONFIG_EXPERT I don't think either of these things have been successful. At least, I haven't seen any evidence of it. My take on these is that EMBEDDED is a handy way for embedded kernel developers to start out with a config which is more appropriate to an embedded device kernel. Of course, the resulting config will be very different from what they eventually use in their product and I expect that the head-start which EMBEDDED gave was of negligible benefit. The development lifetime for an embedded product kernel is months, more likely years. The team will invest the time to carefully select and maintain their kernel configuration. IOW, I expect that EMBEDDED is useless and we may as well do away with it. And ditto EXPERT. Is there really any benefit in hiding config options from developers so they won't burn their fingers? Or is there some other reason for EXPERT? Anyway, we already have a way to prevent fingers from getting burnt: defconfig. Start out with that and carefully modify it. I can see an argument for retaining EXPERIMENTAL: as a way of telling people that the particular feature might not yet be ready for prime time. But I suggest that we tip both CONFIG_EXPERT and CONFIG_EMBEDDED into the ole bit bucket. What do you guys think would be the negative consequences of doing this?