[poky] History and intentions of linux.inc ?

[Bruce Ashfield]

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 4:41 PM, Darren Hart <dvhart at linux.intel.com> wrote:
> I've stumbled over a couple of interesting bits in the existing
> recipes-kernel/linux/linux.inc, for example (but not limited to):
>
>> do_install_prepend() {
>>         if test -e arch/${ARCH}/boot/Image ; then
>>              ln -f arch/${ARCH}/boot/Image arch/${ARCH}/boot/uImage
>>         fi
>
> On a recent kernel, the above will overwrite a valid uImage with Image,
> resulting in a non-bootable set of files in deploy/images.
>
>>
>>         if test -e arch/${ARCH}/boot/images/uImage ; then
>>              ln -f arch/${ARCH}/boot/images/uImage arch/${ARCH}/boot/uImage
>>         fi
>
> The arch/arm/boot/images directory does not exist on a current kernel
> (2.6.35-linaro anyway).
>
>
> Does anyone know the historical significance and/or intent of this code?
> Are there architectures for which this does something sane? After
> reading through linux.inc, I'm inclined to avoid using it for the
> meta-linaro kernel, and then going after it with chainsaw.
>
> Anyone have anything to add before I start cutting?

You already know my opinion (since as Gary pointed out, I side stepped
much of what's in there), but I'll throw a word in here as well.

Although I don't know all the history, you can see how the code was
needed at different points, but as we move forward it isn't used in the
same way, and can definitely use some spring cleaning.

I'm factoring out the dtb code (it's good) into something that can be included
from multiple places, but there are parts of linux.inc that look like they can
be tossed since they modify things like the kernel config in ways that aren't
always appropriate.

The base kernel class also has good that can use some cleaning (the
uImage, etc) and we'll tackle that in good time as well.

Cheers,

Bruce

>
> --
> Darren Hart
> Intel Open Source Technology Center
> Yocto Project - Linux Kernel
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