>> Can I submit the enclosed new documentation file for inclusion in
>> future kernel releases? It provides a list of the valid kernel
>> parameters sorted into dictionary order, and also classified as
>> to the subsystems that they belong to.
>> One thing it does do is to point out the inconsistancies in the
>> way suchlike options are named. In particular:
>> Note that I haven't attempted to change any of the options, as I
>> have no doubt that the current names are all in use somewhere.
> On possible solution to this problem is to declare that kernel
> option names are case and punctuation insensitive. (Note that I
> am refering to the names, not their values.) The code which
> parses the options line could convert all of the left hand sides
> to lower case and delete dots, hyphens, and underscores.
> Of course, all the code which reads option values would have to
> be changed to look for the `cleaned-up' names.
In fact, that shouldn't be necessary as the relevant parsing code is
all in the one function in init/main.c and it already decodes the
values for most of those parameters and provides the relevant values
in separate structures for each parameter.
Personally, I'd like to see all punctuation removed from all kernel
parameters, and the remaining text made case insensitive (which
wouldn't be hard to do), but such a change would need to be agreed on
in advance by all the senior deevelopers.
> I don't know if this is a good idea, but I can think of a few
> arguments in its favour. One is that if the option is
> incorrectly capitalized or punctuated there is not error message
> generated. My suggestion would fix this problem, though it
> wouldn't help if the option name were misspelled.
Personally, I'd like to see any unrecognised kernel options logged in
syslog, thus pointing out where attention might be needed.
> The second reason I can think of is that it is probably bad
> policy anyway to have two options which differ only in case or
> punctuation. Adopting my suggestion would make it impossible.
True.
Best wishes from Riley.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| There is something frustrating about the quality and speed of Linux |
| development, ie., the quality is too high and the speed is too high, |
| in other words, I can implement this XXXX feature, but I bet someone |
| else has already done so and is just about to release their patch. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* ftp://ftp.MemAlpha.cx/pub/rhw/Linux
* http://www.MemAlpha.cx/kernel.versions.html
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