Once again: kernel-modules in the buildsystem

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Hi!

Dan, thanks for taking the time for your reply. 

Am Mittwoch, den 28.09.2005, 16:50 -0400 schrieb Dan Williams: 
> On Wed, 2005-09-28 at 15:20 +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > Dan, if something like that goes into mock -- what would be the best way
> > to make this new mock-option usable in plague for kernel-modules in
> > fedora-extras? Should plague automatically build the modules for all
> > kernels available (the one that was shipped and those currently in
> > updates-released)? Or only for the newest kernel available? Or should
> > the packager say something like "make plague KERNEL=put-kernel-ver-here"
> > when requesting build of a fdr-extras-kernel-module-pkg?
>
> I recognize the need for this, there are a few questions that need
> answering here though.  First, methods.
> 
> 1) have plague automatically build for all kernels
> [...]

Some people think that should be done. But building it for the latest
kernel should be enough IMHO. In the past I also thought we should build
the module for the kernel that was released with core, cause it seems a
lot of people with slow modems or systems that are not directly
connected to the internet don't update their kernels. If we build for
more then one kernel this is the second important one.

> 2) have plague build for latest kernel
> Still requires work to ask yum about a certain repository to get latest
> kernel package.  Slightly easier, but not very much so.  Given that we
> are not guaranteed that the kernel-* package will be in the server's
> repository (it might be in the upstream "official" mirror instead) we
> pretty much have to use yum.

In the build system of another 3rd-party repo we had a file that listed
for which kernel modules should be build. Could that be a short term
solution for plague es well?

> 3) have the packager do it
> Pretty much the status quo right now, not much of a win IMHO.

I disagree. We have no "status quo" right now because

- plague developer(s)
- mock developer(s)
- people on fedora-packaging that want to specify
kernel-module-packaging
- fedora-extras packagers with packages like qemu, OpenAFS (and probably
more) 
- yum developers

all wait for each other (since months) to standardize packaging and
building of kernel-module-packages for extras. This is a real pity :| I
really would like to get this sorted out somehow. 

> In any case, you're going to have to get some form of argument passing
> through Seth and into mock.

Seth, is something like the patch I posted yesterday acceptable for you?
If you don't like part of it just tell me and I can see if I can fix it
with my python knowledge (and improve that while at it)

>   I don't like the "allow packager to pass
> random args" thing,

For other packages I agree.

>  since that's a direct impact on the security of the
> build system.  In the short term though, limiting such things to
> automatic rebuilds of kernel modules seems sane.

Just out of curiosity: What do you suggest in the long term?

-- 
Thorsten Leemhuis <fedora at leemhuis.info>