before:
printk(KERN_DEBUG "The foo at %d breaks bar with %s\n",foo,bar)
printk(KERN_DEBUG "The foo at %d breaks baz with %s\n",foo,baz)
after:
printk_FOO_BREAKS_BAR(foo,bar)
and in some file
FOO_BREAKS_BAR KERN_DEBUG "The foo at %d breaks bar with %s\n"
or
FOO_BREAKS_BAZ KERN_DEBUG "Baz with %s gets trashed by foo at %d/2\n",a2,a1*2
(default: use the number of % characters to count arguments, autocreate
a1...a999 macro variables) which gets autotranslated by a small Perl or Awk
script to
#ifndef printk_FOO_BREAKS_BAR
#define printk_FOO_BREAKS_BAR(a1,a2) printk(KERN_DEBUG "The foo at %d breaks bar with %s\n",(a1),(a2))
#endif
#ifndef printk_FOO_BREAKS_BAZ
#define printk_FOO_BREAKS_BAZ(a1,a2) printk(KERN_DEBUG "Baz with %s gets trashed by foo at %d/2\n",(a2),(a1*2))
#endif
The advantage is that you can reorder arguments at will (if required for a
language), there will NOT be any kernel bloat, you can include more than
one language before the English default, and we could even autogenerate a
version which supports a runtime language switch (which is the only reason
this would result in any kernel bloat at all).
An alternate solution would be to use the standard internationalization
tools, but I don't see how kernel bloat could be avoided with these.
I'm not convinced that a user-space tool could work. Too much is printed at
boot time that really should be comprehensible to the non-English speaking
user.
--
You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.
-- Dorothy Parker
--
Matthias Urlichs \ noris network GmbH / Xlink-POP Nürnberg
Schleiermacherstraße 12 \ Linux+Internet / EMail: urlichs@noris.de
90491 Nürnberg (Germany) \ Consulting+Programming+Networking+etc'ing
PGP: 1024/4F578875 1B 89 E2 1C 43 EA 80 44 15 D2 29 CF C6 C7 E0 DE
Click <A HREF="http://info.noris.de/~smurf/finger">here</A>. 42