Re: RFC - size tool for kernel build system

[Adrian Bunk]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 02:19:36PM -0700, Tim Bird wrote:
> I've been thinking about a tool that might be useful
> to track kernel size changes.  I'm posting this
> Request For Comments to get feedback, and determine
> if this is something that would be worthwhile to
> pursue.
> 
> What I envision is some new kernel build targets, specifically
> related to gathering size information and generating a size
> comparison report.  Some small helper scripts would be written
> to gather the necessary information, and generate the report.
>...
> Any comments?

The building blocks that would be useful are IMHO:
- a make target that generates a report for one kernel
  (like the checkstack or export_report targets)
- a script that compares two such reports and outputs the
  size differences

That's also easy to do, and if that's what's wanted I can send a patch 
that does it.

Everything else is IMHO overdesigned.

The real problem is that dumping some scripts into the kernel sources 
or publishing some data on a webpage doesn't make people use them.

Like if you run "make checkstack" on the kernel today you can see that 
drivers allocate arrays > 1 kB on the stack despite checkstack being 
available...

>  -- Tim

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/