On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Perry Harrington wrote:
> Every time I untar a new kernel, the default name of the kernel directory
> is "linux". This plays havoc because I have to remeber to nuke the
> symlink for "linux" in /usr/src. The real problem arises when we have a
> sysdamin (formerly untrained in Linux) upgrade the kernel on various
> machines, he unwittingly overwrites the existing kernel directory.
>
> Anyhow, would it be possible (oh lord and master of Linux ;) to tar up
> the kernel directory rather than the symlink?
> Eg: tar -zcvf linux-2.0.33.tar.gz linux.2.0.33
Many of the symbolic links used in a Linux filesystem depend on
there being a directory called /usr/src/linux (take a look at
/usr/include/asm, /usr/include/linux/, /usr/include/scsi, for example).
Having /usr/src/linux be a symbolic link to your real tree allows you to
quickly switch between trees when building.
<plug mode=shameless>
If the build process is causing headaches for you and your staff,
might I suggest a tool I'm in the process of writing? It's called
"buildkernel" and attempts to completely automate the process of building
a new kernel. For more information, see
http://www.pobox.com/~wstearns/buildkernel/
It's not quite at the 1.0 level, but that's mostly because I
haven't finished the automatic download of the pcmcia-cs package for those
kernel builds that need it. I've built a large number of my own kernels
with a great deal of success. Almost all of the operation can be
controlled with command line parameters or specified in a configuration
file. It'll even let you automatically include patches, and much, much
more.
</plug>
I'd be interested to know if this turns out to be useful and
whether it works for you or not...
Cheers,
- Bill
(Linus removed from distribution list)
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Unix _is_ user friendly. It's just very selective about who its friends
are. And sometimes even best friends have fights.
William Stearns (wstearns@pobox.com) http://www.websense.net
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