Kernel symbol file alternate location

[Oliver Fromme]

Daniel O'Connor wrote:
 > Is it possible to tell installkernel to put the symbol files elsewhere?

I wondered the same.

 > IMO somewhere in /usr would be good - you don't need them to boot (or
 > crashdump, etc) and they increase the size of the kernel by a factor
 > of 5(!), eg..
 > [cain 14:07] /tmp >du -sh kernel
 > 258M    kernel
 > [cain 14:07] /tmp >rm -f kernel/*.symbols
 > [cain 14:07] /tmp >du -sh kernel         
 >  50M    kernel
 >
 > One downside is that you need to keep them in sync which is a
 > bit of a drag, however I think most people use installworld for
 > upgrades/builds so it would generally not be an issue.
 >
 > I think this is the main reason / has had to grow - the actual kernel
 > is relatively small so even a 256Mb / could hold several, but with
 > the symbol files it is not possible.

I think a very simple solution would be to install the symbol
files elsewhere (probably configurable via make.conf), and
install symlinks in the kernel directory.  If you do this,
tools using the symbol files won't have to be changed.

This would probably be a fairly trivial change to the install-
kernel target, I guess.  I don't have patches, though.

Best regards
   Oliver

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