linux-kernel - Re: divorce CONFIG_X86_PAE from CONFIG

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Message-ID: <20070611235235.GR3588@stusta.de>
Date:	Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:52:35 +0200
From:	Adrian Bunk <bunk@...sta.de>
To:	William Lee Irwin III <wli@...omorphy.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Mark Lord <lkml@....ca>,
	Andi Kleen <ak@...e.de>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: divorce CONFIG_X86_PAE from CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G

On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 07:35:51PM -0700, William Lee Irwin III wrote:
>...
>  config X86_PAE
>...
> +	help
> +	  PAE is required for NX support, and furthermore enables
> +	  larger swapspace support for non-overcommit purposes. It
> +	  has the cost of more pagetable lookup overhead, and also
> +	  consumes more pagetable space per process.
>...

It's not specific to this help text, but I start becoming a bit picky 
about this issues:

If you understand this help text after reading it, you don't need a help 
text for this option...  ;-)

What is "NX support"?
What are "non-overcommit purposes"?
What is "pagetable lookup overhead"?

And if in doubt, should I say Y or N?

"System administrator who knows which hardware components he put into 
the computer and which filesystems his data is on" might be a good 
description for the average kconfig user, and these are the people who 
should understand this help text.

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

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