linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] treewide: drop CONFIG

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Date:   Fri, 18 Aug 2023 23:33:49 -0400
From:   Jesse T <mr.bossman075@...il.com>
To:     Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Russell King <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        "Jason A . Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>, wireguard@...ts.zx2c4.com,
        linux-arch@...r.kernel.org, linux-snps-arc@...ts.infradead.org,
        Vineet Gupta <vgupta@...nel.org>,
        Brian Cain <bcain@...cinc.com>, linux-hexagon@...r.kernel.org,
        Greg Ungerer <gerg@...ux-m68k.org>,
        linux-m68k@...ts.linux-m68k.org, Michal Simek <monstr@...str.eu>,
        Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@...ha.franken.de>,
        Dinh Nguyen <dinguyen@...nel.org>,
        Jonas Bonn <jonas@...thpole.se>,
        Stefan Kristiansson <stefan.kristiansson@...nalahti.fi>,
        Stafford Horne <shorne@...il.com>,
        linux-openrisc@...r.kernel.org, linux-mips@...r.kernel.org,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@...roup.eu>,
        linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org, linux-riscv@...ts.infradead.org,
        Paul Walmsley <paul.walmsley@...ive.com>,
        Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@...belt.com>,
        Albert Ou <aou@...s.berkeley.edu>,
        Yoshinori Sato <ysato@...rs.sourceforge.jp>,
        Rich Felker <dalias@...c.org>,
        John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@...sik.fu-berlin.de>,
        linux-sh@...r.kernel.org, Max Filippov <jcmvbkbc@...il.com>,
        Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>,
        Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>,
        linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] treewide: drop CONFIG_EMBEDDED

On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 7:44 PM Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Jesse,
>
> I replied to your comment a few days ago, but for some reason
> your email to me contains:
> Reply-To: 20230816055010.31534-1-rdunlap@...radead.org
> so it wasn't sent directly to you.

Sorry about that I messed up the email headers...
>
> My former reply is below.
>
> On 8/16/23 20:15, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> > Hi Jesse,
> >
> > On 8/16/23 15:45, Jesse Taube wrote:
> >> Hi, Randy
> >>
> >>> diff -- a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig
> >>> --- a/init/Kconfig
> >>> +++ b/init/Kconfig
> >>> @@ -1790,14 +1790,6 @@ config DEBUG_RSEQ
> >>>
> >>>         If unsure, say N.
> >>>
> >>> -config EMBEDDED
> >>> -    bool "Embedded system"
> >>> -    select EXPERT
> >>> -    help
> >>> -      This option should be enabled if compiling the kernel for
> >>> -      an embedded system so certain expert options are available
> >>> -      for configuration.
> >>
> >> Wouldn't removing this break many out of tree configs?
> >
> > I'm not familiar with out-of-tree configs.
> > Do you have some examples of some that use CONFIG_EMBEDDED?
> > (not distros)

Buildroot has a few.
It won't immediately break Buildroot and Yocto as they have a set version,
but it could be confusing for anyone updating the kernel.

> >
> >> Should there be a warning here to update change it instead of removal?
> >
> > kconfig doesn't have a warning mechanism AFAIK.
> > Do you have an idea of how this would work?

No, unfortunately. As you said without a warning it would be overlooked so
a change would not be necessary.

A possible solution is to check in a header file with:

#ifdef CONFIG_EMBEDDED
#warning "CONFIG_EMBEDDED has changed to CONFIG_EXPERT"
#endif

Does anyone else have an opinion on this?
Since kconfig doesn't have a warning mechanism the patch seems fine as is.

Thanks,
Jesse Taube
> >
> > We could make a smaller change to init/Kconfig, like so:
> >
> >  config EMBEDDED
> > -     bool "Embedded system"
> > +     bool "Embedded system (DEPRECATED)"
> >       select EXPERT
> >       help
> > -       This option should be enabled if compiling the kernel for
> > -       an embedded system so certain expert options are available
> > -       for configuration.
> > +       This option is being removed after Linux 6.6.
> > +       Use EXPERT instead of EMBEDDED.
> >
> > but there is no way to produce a warning message. I.e., even with this
> > change, the message will probably be overlooked.
> >
> > ---
> > ~Randy
>
> --
> ~Randy