Re: Debian Specialities (fwd)
>>"Christoph" == Christoph Lameter <clameter@waterf.org> writes:
Christoph> On 2 Jan 1997, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
srivasta> In this case, I don't think we should ``get in line'' with
Christoph> Dosemu autodetects the kernel version and tries to locate
Christoph> the kernel sources through the symlinks in
Christoph> /usr/include. All sorts of strange things happened until I
Christoph> overrode the kernel source detection.
How difficult is it to change that? and, secondly, how needed
is it anyway, since it does not seem to matter which kernel I run the
binary on? I have not seen any kind of tie in between running kernel
versions and dosemu, so I'm, well, skeptical. OTOH, I grant you I
have never looked at dosemu sources, so there well may be a valid
reason.
Christoph> A number of other kernel related packages rest their
Christoph> compilation on the presence of those symlinks. I am the
Christoph> maintainer of most of those kernel related packages.
srivasta> A more detailed defence of out practice follows.
Christoph> I know the text but I think this is again an issue where
Christoph> Debian tries to outsmart the rest of the Linux World and
Christoph> hurts itself in the process.
Christoph> I and many other developers in the Linux world are used to
Christoph> cope with recent kernel versions and the tricks they might
Christoph> play with /usr/include/xxx. There is the custom to take
Christoph> advantage of those links and to assume that they accurately
Christoph> point to the most recent kernel version and not to some
Christoph> past "stable" version.
Christoph> That does not work under Debian and thus we have a host of
Christoph> problems with users trying to do kernel dependant things
Christoph> under Debian that wont work.
Again, /usr/src/linux should point to the kernel-version
specific headers, if any reside on the machine. I'd again question
the need for these, since I think most programs should be perfectly
happy with the headers provided by libc* packages.
I know of only pcmcia module packages that seem to really need
kernel version specific stuff, since they are the only ones tied to
specific kernel versions.
I mean, if the run time kernel api/data structures are
irrelevant, how does it matter if you compile with the headers
belonging to the kernel source you happen to have on your machine, as
opposed to the headers packaged by the libc developer? Are the
reasons technical, or aesthetic?
manoj
--
Today is the last day of your life so far.
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@datasync.com>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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