Re: Why not make Linux source modular?

Kevin Lentin (kevinl@cs.monash.edu.au)
Mon, 26 Feb 1996 11:31:58 +1100 (EST)

Linus Torvalds Wrote ...
> One _major_ advantage as having it all in one lump is that when I change
> some interface, I can then fix all the pieces that use that interface,
> rather than just tell people who maintain all the pieces to fix it.
> Believe me, it makes things a _lot_ easier.
>
> (Of course, that kind of changes do not happen often, but when they do
> it's traumatic enough even without any added synchronization problems).

Maybe an intermediate solution would work. Separate the kernel into
separate source .tar.gz files either by section or by architecture (or
both) but you still maintain it all. Just modify the targets that produce
the .tar.gz files and patch files to produce a set of such files instead.

I have a huge amount of wasted diskspace from all the architectures I do
not use and several meg of compressed source is just not needed. Surely
there is a solution that keeps all the souce in one place yet distributes
it in separate bits?

-- 
[=======================================================================]
[ Kevin Lentin                 |finger kevinl@fangorn.cs.monash.edu.au| ]
[ K.Lentin@cs.monash.edu.au    |for PGP public key block. Fingerprint | ]
[ Macintrash: 'Just say NO!'   |6024308DE1F84314  811B511DBA6FD596    | ]
[=======================================================================]