linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kconfig: untangle EXPERT and EMBEDDED

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:36:18 -0800
From:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com>
Cc:	Andrew Jones <drjones@...hat.com>, rientjes@...gle.com,
	mingo@...e.hu, david.woodhouse@...el.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, gregkh@...e.de, davem@...emloft.net,
	axboe@...nel.dk, arnd@...db.de, holt@....com,
	linux-arch@...r.kernel.org, linux@....linux.org.uk,
	hskinnemoen@...il.com, egtvedt@...fundet.no, msalter@...hat.com,
	a-jacquiot@...com, starvik@...s.com,
	jesper nilsson <jesper.nilsson@...s.com>, dhowells@...hat.com,
	takata@...ux-m32r.org, geert@...ux-m68k.org,
	yasutake koichi <yasutake.koichi@...panasonic.com>,
	jonas@...thpole.se, kyle@...artin.ca, deller@....de,
	jejb@...isc-linux.org, chris@...kel.net, greg@...ah.com,
	davej@...hat.com, airlied@...ux.ie, jkosina@...e.cz,
	mchehab@...radead.org, johannes@...solutions.net,
	linville@...driver.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kconfig: untangle EXPERT and EMBEDDED

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:04:41 +0300
Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 12:28:30PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > And ditto EXPERT.  Is there really any benefit in hiding config options
> > from developers so they won't burn their fingers?  Or is there some
> > other reason for EXPERT?
> 
> Absolutely.
> 
> If say CONFIG_TMPFS is disabled, Debian simply won't boot past
> init scripts. Or CONFIG_UNIX (I'm almost sure, reasonably
> modern distro is unusable anyway).
> 

If you screw up your kernel config, the resulting kernel won't work
right.  There are countless ways of doing this.  You go back to the
previous .config and try again.


Is there some benefit to handholding people in a few special cases? 
Well yes, I suppose so.  But does that benefit justify all the gunk
we've added to Kconfig to implement it?   I don't think so.

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