Re: Exposing device ids and driver names

[Nathaniel McCallum]

On 10/01/2009 02:40 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 01, 2009 at 02:35:40PM -0400, Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> > On 10/01/2009 02:05 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> > > On Thu, Oct 01, 2009 at 01:01:50PM -0400, Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> > > > On 10/01/2009 12:42 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > > Why not just use the baseline kernel as a model for this.  Do a 'make
> > > > > allmodconfig' and then extract the data and publish it that way.  No
> > > > > kernel changes are needed, and then any distro can be easily matched up
> > > > > by this based on what they are using.  That will save you time in
> > > > > downloading zillions of distro releases, and provide a nice easy way to
> > > > > show what the kernel.org releases support.
> > > >
> > > > Unfortunately, I would not be able to track changes to the kernel in
> > > > this model.  Since this is one of my explicit goals (to make sure that
> > > > distro kernel changes get upstream), I think a non-invasive kernel
> > > > modification would be worth the effort.
> > >
> > > But this was an invasive modification, it added space to the kernel
> > > images for no real benifit other than for your tracking tools.  That's
> > > not going to fly unless you can find another good use for the change.
> >
> > Which is why I asked for advice for better options.  I would prefer a
> > non-invasive modification.  I am hoping that someone more familiar with
> > the layer would provide such a suggestion.
> >
> > One potential benefit for moving module info to ELF sections would be
> > the ability to strip kernel modules.  As a test, I did this on a recent
> > Fedora rawhide kernel I had lying around.  Stripping the modules results
> > in a 43% decrease in size (82M to 47M).
>
> Did those modules have debugging symbols enabled?  That seems like a
> large savings for just the module device tables.

It does not appear so (none of the debug sections are present).  But I 
could be wrong.

Stripping the modules on the penultimate Fedora 11 kernel results in the 
same drop in size.  I can't imagine why a release kernel would have 
anything extra left in the modules (unless it is just by accident).

Nathaniel
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